Scientology is the most written about, investigated, and often-raided cult in the world today. Over the years, hundreds of horrifying articles have appeared worldwide in respected newspapers and magazines. What you are about to read goes far beyond shock, beyond the Jonestown potential, beyond anything ever revealed about the secret cult of Scientology.
This cult has been raided by both the F.B.I. and the F.D.A. At this time (1980) 11 of the cult's highest officials are in U.S. jails on criminal charges, including the founder's wife. Yet despite all the attention and the information that has come out in court cases, barely the tip of the iceberg has been exposed. There has been little real understanding of the whole picture of what this mysterious cult is really doing and is really up to.
There is good reason for "seeing the nail but missing it with the hammer." The cult bathes itself in mystery, secrecy, codes, special nomenclatures, security clearances, and polygraph type ("E-Meter") loyalty tests. These shrouds of secrecy hamper understanding and assembling the few pieces of data investigators have had. My legal case was the first to reach the courts from someone who had been all the way through the cult's upper level programming. Normally this programming makes a group member fearfully and unquestioningly loyal to the cult, unable to expose the whole truth and the whole picture of what the cult is really doing. No correctly programmed cult member would dare expose a truth more suited to a horror science fiction story than a modern day religious organization.
I am a fugitive from the cult now, after being a programmed true believer for 11 years. I have to keep traveling and operate under fictitious identities to avoid the cult's heavy and extensive search for me. I am a most dangerous security leak to the cult because I have firsthand knowledge of their criminal activity and am willing to tell all, despite their 'level 2' programming.
I have written this affidavit in case I am caught by the cult or harmed before I have had the chance to tell what lies beneath the codes, the secrets, and the protective illusions the cult creates.
I have instructed my lawyer to file this document in its entirety on a specific date so it becomes a matter of public record for my suit against the cult. And I am writing this affidavit for my friends and family so they can understand why I was so distant from them while I was a loyal cult member, and for my friends and other good people who (as I was) are still in and controlled by the cult. Another reason is for my country. I am grateful now to be able to do something that can help many people and possibly even help to protect our national security. Finally, I am writing this as an expression of the severe mental and physical pain, anguish, and suffering I have been subjected to by the cult -- suffering I could wish on no human being, even the worst of my enemies.
THIS AFFIDAVIT CONTAINS:
In certain of my comments, some of the emotional scars left by
the cult show through. Please try to ignore these emotions and
just look at the facts as they bear out with documentation. I
have tried to make this report as complete as possible, with data
that may benefit my lawyer and anyone else who must deal with
this group. I wrote it as though I might never be able to write
another, in consideration of the fanatical reaction inside the
cult when they find their most sensitive information on public
record.
Larry D. Wollersheim February 4, 1980
revised for a general audience April-May 1993
My Beginnings in Scientology
Page (1) Missing
On course, I was enthusiastically sold all the marvelous things the cult offered at different levels.
"OT-8," the top level of Scientology, was shown to me on a chart saying that it gives one the power of "subjective and objective cause over matter, energy, space and time." It was explained to me that this means a person can move objects without mechanical means, see through walls, travel without your body, travel in or change time both subjectively and objectively. So objectively that other people could see it and know it to be true.
I was told that a "clear" doesn't get colds and has no voices in his head. Everything is quiet in his head. My course supervisor had a withered leg but he assured me that Scientology was making it grow back. It still looked withered to me but I assumed it had been more withered before. I really liked the idea of traveling and being able to do things without my body. This impressed me the most. I was told, "Imagine having a free United Airlines ticket to anywhere in the universe -- that's what it's like to be OT."
I was told that I could train and become an "auditor" and in a matter of weeks have a profession where I could earn a living and do more to help people than any counselor, psychiatrist or psychologist. Later in my cult experience I was shown a policy, HCOB 16 July 1970, which boasts, "Any HAS knows more and can do more about the mind than any psychiatrist."
On my first course, the HAS ("Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist") course, we did something they call "TR's" (Training Routines). I was shocked at first, coming from a private all-boys Catholic high school, by "bullbaiting." In bullbaiting you try to make a person show some type of reaction by any verbal or non-violent physical means. I was bullbaited by several individuals. On one occasion, a girl rubbed her hand up and down the inside of my leg and talked about performing oral sex and various other sex acts, in the most explicit language. Every time I laughed or reacted she would "flunk" me. I remember once she flunked me for getting an erection. Once the male supervisor took my hand and moved it above my groin, imitating masturbation, while describing various "styles" of masturbation like "the Italian fist fucker" style. I was assured that all this was necessary to help me communicate with people.
As I look back at it now, I think I was pretty typical of people drawn to the cult at that time. The cult sold a far-out sort of spiritualism and romanticism -- an underdog trying to save a world gone crazy. At 19, during the Vietnam era, I could agree that the world was crazy.
I came from a naive, highly disciplined background and now, on my own for a school vacation, wanted to experience new things. I was looking for new solutions to the teenage pressures of growing into the "real" world. I fervently desired my idealist dreams of world betterment and individual improvement -- so much that I was willing to forgo life's uncertainty for the "certain" dreams I was promised through the cult.
Inspired and motivated by the cult's wild claims, and in hope of a new career where I could help others and make a good living, I decided to end my vacation and go wherever I could most quickly earn money for Scientology training. I decided on Alaska, but was turned away because I didn't have enough cash to drive the long Alaska-Canada highway -- or to live while I looked for a job. I drove back to Wisconsin and started a candle manufacturing business to earn the large sums of money I needed.
In Milwaukee I met a high level cult member, Maurry Lereud, and gave him several thousand dollars for courses, books, and auditing. By the time I received my first auditing I had been totally indoctrinated on what I should say, do, feel, and experience. I had taken courses and had seen and heard others talk about their results (called "wins" or "gains"). I hoped and believed so hard that Scientology was the only way out of my problems and the world's problems, that I really believed I was experiencing "wins" and I wrote "success stories" saying what they were.
With a positive attitude like that, any placebo would have made me feel better and convinced me that I had had gains. Thus "it" happened in my first level of auditing from Maurry Lereud.
I see now that the subjective gains I wrote about in glowing testimonials were greatly affected by the placebo effect of my own hopes and strong-as-iron belief in cult doctrine. Any temporary relief I experienced from auditing is understandable from my induced subjective euphoria. The "gains" I believed I experienced did not stand the tests of time or objectivity. I am sad that my testimonials (oral, written, and taped while I was in a mentally dominated state) were used to convince tens of thousands of others that Hubbard's technology is effective.
By the time I realized what was going on in the cult I had directly and indirectly influenced over 20,000 cult members, probably more, and helped create the greatest cash boom the cult ever experienced.
In my days as a cult salesman I saw many people get auditing to grow hair on a bald spot, to lose weight, to get rid of pains and illnesses -- including cancer and heart trouble. I saw them sold more and more auditing and be told they needed yet more -- that the next new cure-all would handle their problems. I have seen women pay tens of thousands of dollars in hopes of losing weight and remain as fat as ever, still hoping and being led by the cult's sales force like a donkey chasing a carrot on a string. I have seen hopeful naive new cult members coerced into huge advance service payments to the cult, spending vast amounts of their inheritances. I know of individuals who have paid the cult in excess of $100,000 for counseling in a matter of months. I know of one individual from France who spent over $200,000 for services at the Clearwater, Florida center. I have seen and have been part of it, as I was trained as a cult salesman. I was trained to get huge amounts of money from cult members by: l) locating all their assets and potential assets through loans from relatives or banks, 2) by helping them devise stories for relatives or bankers that would be acceptable explanations of why they need the money, 3) and by constantly reassuring and pressuring the cult members to get money or loans by "selling" them the conviction that it was the right thing to do for themselves, for the cult, for all mankind.
We salesmen were not concerned to leave cult members with any back-up assets. Our lives consisted of commands and orders from executives and the inner circle to get more money now! I sometimes felt bad about this after reading the cult's internal directive ordering that Scientology organizations are never, never to borrow money from anyone. Yet as a cult salesman I constantly hammered people to get loans. I never understood the discrepancy and finally stopped thinking about it, after being assured by seniors that I was doing the right thing for the customer and for the cult.
While I was receiving services in Milwaukee, the salesman for the Minneapolis center kept calling me to go up there and get the next load of services the cult offered. I finally did, with my girlfriend, Edee Dissmore. In Minneapolis I paid more than five thousand dollars for services for both of us. We received pre-clear auditing.
I call the pre-clear auditing that we received "Level 1"
-- not to be confused with "Academy Levels I - IV" which
are cult training levels. The cult's actions and motives can be
understood by looking at a Scientologist's career divided into
3 levels.
Level 1 is the level of of truisms that anyone could agree with. This is where Scientology presents itself as like any other religion or normal philosophy. Level 1 auditing looks like simple communication. Most mental health therapists might not see much harm in it.
Level 1 serves a key function for the cult by associating Scientology with some truth, a limited workability, and an acceptable religious "image." It creates a vitally needed base of agreeable truth (and social companionship) that sticks cult members to it in spite of the outrageous conduct and ideas which these same people will encounter on Levels 2 and 3. Hubbard said that the best way to stick someone and hold them is to attach a subtle lie to acceptable truths. Most individuals will assume that since they believe A B C and D are true, E must also be true since it comes from the same place as A B C and D.
At Level one you will see total and complete sincerity on the part of cult members in proclaiming the benefits of their cult association. They have new friends, have put attention on areas of their lives they may have ignored in the past, and have introduced some measure of structure and discipline. They are told that they are better, that they are "improving conditions." The things asserted to them are things they want to believe. Level 1 Scientology is an mask, three decades in development, for the grand illusion and the seduction of deceived member into the programming of Level 2 and Level 3.
Don't ever waste time attacking Level 1 Scientology. It is real
to the individuals concerned and after three decades of practice
it will stand up to the most careful scrutiny. Level 1 Scientology
is the link, base, invincible foundation and springboard of workable
"everybody knows" truths and religious image vital to
preparing cult members for their assimilation into Levels 2 and
3. Level 1 Scientology serves as a qualifier and test of loyalty
for new cult members. If they can't reach the top of it, they
are probably security risks and shouldn't be exposed to the "sensitive"
cult materials on Levels 2 and 3.
Level 2 is the area of confidential mind domination techniques: Power and Power Plus processes, R6EW, the Clearing Course, OT 1, OT 2, OT 3, OT 3X, OT 4, OT 5, OT 6, OT 7, (OT 8-29 are claimed to exist but are not released), L-10, L-11, L-12, NED for OT's, and Super Power. All the preceding are names of confidential highly guarded secret materials.
These techniques, if ever examined by qualified professionals outside the cult, will be found to be dangerous, sophisticated methods of brainwashing and mental domination. Hubbard said that if a foreign government ever got these processes they would throw the population into a super controlled slave society. The cult itself, in secret materials you study when you start Level 2, warns about unauthorized exposure to these materials. You are told, in no uncertain terms, that these procedures can cause illness, death, insanity, personality splits, and schizophrenia (but only to outsiders, not to cult members).
Even non-confidential promotional materials advertise that the upper-level processes contain dangerous and powerful techniques for the mind and body. David Mayo, Hubbard's right hand man, in a cult promotion, warned of the "serious body consequences" that could occur if a "clear" received New Era Dianetics (NED) auditing. Hubbard, in another policy directive, extended the danger to "clears" who ever had Dianetics after "clear."
The cult has set up the most elaborate security measures to protect its monopoly on these materials. They are triple-locked under 24-hour guard at all worldwide "advanced organizations." One cult member bragged to me that the security was so good in the cult's early days that the Advanced Organization, whose job is to administer Level 2 services, had been moved five times around the world to avoid suspected infiltration and seizure of Hubbard's secret materials. Everything -- all files and dangerous documents had been moved in 24 hours from Los Angeles to Spain, and in 24 hour intervals around the world.
Level 2 uses a combination of repeater techniques, fear association techniques, and other processes to reduce the will to say or do anything but what the cult orders in its policies and directives. I can only describe the result. I am not qualified to analyze how it does these things. After Level 2 programming I found myself in fear and unquestionably willing to give more and more of my personal assets to the cult. It was my duty now to defend the cult and its secrets to the full extent of my power. I became willing to risk my own personal safety to protect the cult's secrets, far beyond any "social" loyalty I had ever felt on Level 1.
On Level 2 I started to experience various compulsions I had never experienced before. I started getting pains, illnesses, and mental states of fear that were beyond anything I ever dreamed I would get from Scientology. Perverse sexual compulsions from "past life" auditing dwelled in my mind. At times I felt like I was ready to be triggered into violent emotion and action with the proper restimulation. Many times during my level 2 indoctrination, both in the cult environment and in the outside world, I dropped into a seething rage for no apparent reason. Before Level 2 I had never experienced anything like the force and violence of these hostile emotions. I began to despise anyone who opposed the cult.
Later I came to understand that I had been programmed with "trigger" words that could, in an instant, produce almost uncontrollable emotional or thought reactions. They could be "keyed in" at a later date by the cult if to do so was expedient to their purpose. I feel that the mind domination techniques of Level 2 reduce the "social" loyalty of Level 1 cult members to a stimulus-response, unreasoned, uncontrollable, and compulsive kind of loyalty. It feels as if some kind of machine has been put in your head to direct and monitor your behavior. This is beyond "1984." Level 2 produces Jonestown-type fanaticism but the potential lies covered by seemingly normal behavior until needed by the cult leaders.
I believe that one part of the technique, as with voodoo, is making you believe in their power down to the deepest level of your subconscious mind.
It was only after months away from the cult, questioning, suffering, writing this affidavit and coming to understand their methods, that I was able to break through enough of the fear and the conscious and unconscious hold they had on me, to be able to write this.
Since no other level 2 cult members have spoken up until now,
I can only suppose that errors were made in my programming. Scientology
processes are programmed in a very specific sequence by another
cult member called a "case supervisor." As in any technique
involving individual judgment and decision points, there can be
errors or variations in delivery. An accumulation of incorrect
programming is the only explanation I can see for my not now being
just as I was before, a zombie to Hubbard's orders. This may also
explain other less vocal cult defectors, many of whom are waiting
to be broken out of their fearful silence.
[Since 1980, when this was written, many other "level
2" Scientologists have come forward with stories that corroborate
this manuscript. -Ed.]
I feel it is imperative that the cult's Level 2 mind domination
techniques be examined on a public health basis, for there probably
is a basis to Hubbard's greatest fear, that this data may escape
his monopoly and be seen by health professionals (or captured
by the Russians).
Level 2, in most cases, is the base and springboard of total loyalty required to enter Level 3. There are exceptions of certain highly trusted individuals, not Level 2, who are allowed very limited access to Level 3 confidential materials. These materials are the cult's area of greatest legal risk. Information in Level 3 is strictly on a "need to know" basis. No cult member on Level 3 knows more than he has to, so if he gets caught and "turns" on the cult (which is almost unheard of), he cannot incriminate other covert programs.
A book called "The Art of War" is the "Bible" of Level 3. The main purpose of Level 3 is to recruit and train the most fanatically loyal and zealous cult members as covert intelligence agents and operatives. They will work in their respective areas in life for the cult's purpose of furthering the cult's propaganda, attacking enemies, and legal defense. The Guardian's Office (lately renamed "Office of Special Affairs") is the command and information center for Level 3 activity. It is the training center for cult agents and operatives. It is the center for the encoding of secret texts and orders. The Guardian's Office is a highly trained and totally fanatical worldwide network of thousands of agents and operatives, similar in function to the C.I.A. or K.G.B. Guardian's Office files contain programs and training manuals that teach new recruits the "tools of the trade." No religion existing today has anything like the Guardian's Office.
The Guardian's Office should not be underestimated. I believe the F.B.I. raids only skimmed the tip of the iceberg in discovering what illegal activities the cult has perpetrated against individuals, organizations, and the government. Not understanding the cult's codes, nomenclature and structure, the F.B.I. could not coordinate the evidence they had gathered. The cult's sophisticated code systems are all but incomprehensible to anyone other than those for whom they were designed on a "need to know" basis.
Level 3 is the cult's area of planning and execution for its international political and economic goal of worldwide influence and dominance. From the best that I can put together, the cult is working toward a form of one-world government with their agents in key positions or influencing key positions. The thinking inside the cult, and I'm completely serious when I say this, is: they sincerely plan to take their cult methodologies to other planets to further expand -- which of course justifies an unlimited, heroic effort to acquire complete control of this planet's resources which will be required for the expansion. Yes, it sounds wild and unbelievable. The cult knows that no one will believe it. They count on that. Who would ever believe a "religion" to be a worldwide conspiracy dedicated to programming every man, woman, and child on earth? The cult's real goals are concealed by their easier-to-believe PR about bringing order, sanity, and spiritual freedom and "clearing" mankind.
I know from firsthand experience that the cult's inner circle, the leaders of the cult, and almost everyone who has been programmed on Level 2, believe themselves to be ''aliens'' from other planets who were trapped on earth 76 million years ago by a tyrant who overthrew a galactic governing body called "The Galactic Confederation."
76 million years ago the tyrant "Zemu" (sometimes "Zenu") supposedly subjected us all to massive brainwashing to make us forget who and what we are. He inflicted mental and physical damage on we who are now the present population of earth, as you will learn in the section describing the secret OT 3 materials. The cult believes that as "spirits" they never die -- only evolve from lifetime to lifetime. They believe they have done this for the past 76 million years on Earth, in forced ignorance of what happened 76 million years ago, and that they would still be ignorant and disenfranchised if Hubbard hadn't come along and "awakened them" with OT 3.
They believe that Sea Org members are "the generals and leaders of all the star systems." They believe it is their new duty and responsibility to "wake up other spirits" to their true identity and to what happened 76 million years ago, by using the Level 2 programming. The cult calls this "clearing the planet."
The true intention is, by using Hubbard's compilation of Level 2 mind domination techniques, to create a super controlled beyond-1984 society with the Guardian's Office and the Sea Organization as actual or defacto rulers of the planet, and you-know-who as acting "God." The secret Level 2 materials contain documentation of the 76-million-year-old catastrophe story and the data I am relating.
Now you can understand the secrecy of this cult and the extreme security measures it takes to protect Level 2 and Level 3 data.
Hubbard takes the typical science fiction "aliens have landed" plot one further step. He says they were here in the first place and have always been here, at least for 76 million years. Earth, he says, is a "prison" planet. All the criminals, geniuses, artists, rebellious political leaders, and almost every General in the universe who opposed the tyrant "Zemu," were rounded up and implanted by Zemu (implant is a cult word not unlike brainwashing) and incarcerated here on earth in ignorance and forgetfulness.
It's scary looking at this data from outside the cult, but to those indoctrinated at Level 2 it is quite romantic and egotistically satisfying because they (those cult members active now) were the old generals, geniuses, artists and leaders of the universe, trapped here in a long-gone war. Hubbard, as discoverer of the Level 2 "secrets," is the savior and salvation to cult members since it was he who "woke them up" to the "truth."
When you really get the idea of this cult setting up a worldwide network of agents and operatives to push the cult into worldwide power and dominance, and that they aren't doing it for any existing government but sincerely and with desperate seriousness in loyalty to their age-old military brethern, to take the best of the "old star days" and reclaim their birthright in a new galactic government with earth as the first planet, and that in doing this they consider themselves above any moral or legal restraint, you will get an idea why the cult so fears public exposure of its secrets and plans -- and why such exposure must occur before this cult acquire any real power..
I'll give you an idea of what lengths the cult will go to hide
their Level 2 secrets or discredit any leak of them. In 1971 journalist
Paulette Cooper published a book called "The Scandal of Scientology"
which contains Level 2 materials that apparently a "Robert
Kaufman" had leaked to her. Cooper obviously did not understand
those materials, but parts of them are included in her book. The
cult launched a major covert operation called "Operation
Freakout" to frame Cooper on criminal charges and have her
incarcerated in a mental institution (this is documented in materials
seized by the F.B.I. in their raid on Scientology's LA headquarters).
They wanted to be certain that neither Cooper or her book would
ever be resurrected after the cult had intimidated her publisher
through lawsuits and removed the book from distribution.
After receiving my Level 1 indoctrination in Minneapolis, I went to Los Angeles for the "Power" and "Power Plus" levels -- after paying the Los Angeles "church" more than two thousand dollars. "Power" is the entrance point of Level 2. On Power processes you are asked to "locate a source" over and over again until you finally "cognite" that you are a "source." The instant I became aware of the correct answer I was knocked unconscious for several seconds. I felt nothing at first and then woke up in what I thought was some other space. The auditor ended the session. For the next 20 minutes I had the totally new and bizarre feeling that I could create energy and it was flowing off my body.
After 20 minutes it was gone. I felt terrible, as if I had lost
something very important that I had to have back. I was deeply
upset by the disappearance of this feeling. (Perhaps I had seen,
but could not admit even to myself, that the expected sci-fi "abilities"
were bogus.) I told the case supervisor and they put me back on
Power Plus, a level they had said previously that I didn't need.
They asked me questions about people and planets that had worked
against me or harmed me. I don't even know where I got the answers
I gave them. It was very strange. After that, I was done. I did
not regain the previous euphoria. My emotions cycled back and
forth, up and down, and were very unpredictable and strong.
Before I went back to my business, I was convinced by a recruiter to join the Sea Organization. The Sea Org contract is for a billion years -- and brother, they mean it. I was told by the recruiter about a confidential policy that gives you 18 years leave between bodies, after you die but before you have to report back for active duty. I signed the contract, convinced it was my "duty" to be loyal and help the cult "save the world."
After signing the contract, I went back to Wisconsin to tell my girlfriend that we were going to sell everything and be Sea Org members and save the world. At first she resisted, but after a while she consented. During this time, shortly after my first steps in Level 2, I had three uncontrollable outbursts of anger and violence. They were so startling that I didn't understand them, since in my earlier years I had never acted in such an intolerant and irrational manner. In one incident I almost hit my father because I felt he was trying to harm the cult. I was worried about how I had changed.
Shortly after I got back to Los Angeles, I began to complain that something was wrong. I wasn't feeling like I used to. I wasn't acting the same. Strange thoughts were entering my mind. So, the cult put me on Power correction auditing and then other corrections. I felt good for a while, then worse after the subjective euphoria of the session wore off.
During my first two years on staff I had 37 ethics handlings, as they call them. These were later said to have been done wrong and to be the cause of my problems. I remember one ethics handling where I "discovered" my father to be a bad person from 76 million years ago and the reason for all my cult problems. I remember the imagined hate I felt for him. Although I had arguments with him (as normal parents and children do) while growing up, I always loved and respected my father. Now the love seemed to be gone and replaced with a cult loyalty which required that I stop my father from stopping me in the cult, or from investigating the cult. I was instructed to maintain a public relations "front" with my parents, to keep the cult safe and so that I could proceed with my salvation on cult Level 2. I can tell you, it was so strange to react that way, having a whole new set of loyalties and being willing to sacrifice my feelings and loyalties to my parents. I seemed to be compelled by some force I didn't understand.
My girlfriend had joined the staff at Celebrity Center in Los Angeles on the billion year contract and she wasn't happy or making it either. I was told we would have to separate because she was a "suppressive person." I was to go to the Sea Org ship to get away from her. She was removed from her position and put in the cult kitchen as a dishwasher. While in the kitchen she spilled boiling water and was burned over 30% of her body. They didn't even tell me that she was hospitalized for almost a week.
They wanted me to go to Los Angeles to convince her to get out of the hospital and be cared for by the cult -- and to make sure she was persuaded not to sue the cult for damages or insurance money. I was so brainwashed at the time that I did it, because when I was told she was an "SP" I cut off any humanitarian feeling or love for her. I had read and believed the many words Hubbard wrote about SP's and other cult enemies having no rights or dignity. After she left the hospital and came back to the cult center, I went back to the ship. While I was at the ship she called my father to take her home. Without me knowing, they had been keeping her in quarantine and treating her cruelly because she was a "suppressive person." My father helped her get back to Wisconsin and helped care for her until she got well again. To this day the cult still sends her bills saying that she owes them money from the time she was working for them without pay.
I stayed in the cult, unquestioningly locked into its beliefs by fear and unknown compulsions. I was having all kinds of staff problems and was growing disenchanted, but still was held by some command unknown to me at the time. Finally the cult ordered me to the Rehabilitation Project Force, implying I was evil and had to rehabilitate myself (as well as work). It was the most degrading experience of my life. The R.P.F. was on the ship "Excalibur" in San Pedro, California. We were confined, except for cleaning below the ship's decks, in a tiny, tiny area. The food was so bad that one person, Bill Wade, had to be hospitalized for malnutrition. I spent days tearing at myself wondering why I was so bad and resistive to cult orders and policies. They were "saving mankind," and I was supposedly working against the only organization that could "save mankind." I was audited and corrected on past auditing over and over until I couldn't take it (the programming) any more. I planned to secretly jump ship. When I tried to jump ship I was caught and held on the ship until executives came from the ethics section and warned me of what would happen if I left and was declared an "SP" and in treason. I cowered down and went back to the R.P.F. Several weeks later I was released from the Rehabilitation Project Force as a "mistaken assignment" there.
I went back to work at Celebrity Center and was given an OK to
go on the next Level 2 step, called "R6EW." I had proven
my loyalty. On this level you are given lists of "trigger"
words and instructions from your "case supervisor."
You must go over and over these lists until you observe a certain
"E Meter" phenomenon. On the next step, the Clearing
Course, you are given further word lists, sequences of words,
and descriptions of objects to "audit" on. You also
see a movie where Hubbard talks about having worked on these "OT"
materials for over 300 years. On the Clearing Course Hubbard describes
and has you audit a "light" that makes you sleepy.
"OT-l" is a tiny level you do after becoming a "clear" where you go out on the street and do mental exercises. "OT-2" is many, many very bizarre word lists and ideas and concepts you "audit" over and over and backwards and forwards. I believe that this is a key level for cult loyalty and control programming.
"OT-3" is the key level of all the cult's levels. It is the most shocking of all. A large portion of the materials on this level is handwritten and signed by Hubbard. The big "secrets of the universe" that Hubbard supposedly discovered are finally revealed -- the real cause of insanity and irrational behavior and schizophrenia.
Hubbard starts by telling you he has discovered that human beings are not just one entity or spirit. He says that each of us is actually many, many, many spirits (called "thetans") trapped and stuck together in one body. The voices you hear in your head are actually other spirits.
He describes the "great catastrophe" that occurred on earth 76 million years ago that caused these spirits to get stuck together. He tells about how the evil tyrant "Zemu," who had galactic power at the time, rounded up all his adversaries and, in an effort to solve the galactic overpopulation problem, froze them in ice blocks and dropped them into volcanoes on Earth. Then, Hubbard says, "Zemu" dropped H bombs on the volcanoes. The force of the explosions blew the spirits out of their bodies and up onto "electronic nets" surrounding the volcanoes. Zemu's renegade force then supposedly collected the spirits off the electronic nets and electronically brainwashed and "welded" them together into "clusters" of spirits. This was done in Hawaii and Las Palmas. A cluster could be a few spirits or millions of spirits. These other spirits, or "demons" as he calls them in Dianetics, are the source of evil, aberration, and insanity. The action of OT-3 is excorcism of these troublesome spirits by telepathically auditing each of them, one by one.
Hubbard teaches in the OT-3 materials that all human beings on Earth, who think they are one person, one spirit or one soul, are actually many, many spirits but don't know it. He goes on to say that most people, before OT-3, are usually controlled by a dominant spirit (your apparent identity) which controls the group of spirits in each body. I found out that the purpose and design of the "Power Processes" are to break one spirit out of the group and empower him, making him dominant so the whole group of spirits is easier to control through the spirit who received the power processes. Strangely, this dominant "personality" always turns out to be a loyal Scientologist. This selective empowering of a cult persona, guided and justified by Hubbard's mythology, could explain the massive personality changes that cult members go through.
I spent somewhere between one and two hundred hours auditing on OT-3. The sequence of auditing is as follows. You first mentally locate the spirits in, on, or around your body and start mentally talking to them. Imagine the emotional stress of talking to Hubbard's demons for hundreds of hours -- in your leg, arm, nose, groin -- in any part of your body or area near your body! After you think you have established "communication" with one of these spirits you audit it, starting a million years ago. Sometimes you have to audit a spirit on what Hubbard calls "the first incident in the existence of a spirit in this universe." He says this occurred one quadrillion years ago and consisted of total blackness followed by cherubs pulled by a fiery chariot. The story goes that the cherubs came out of the chariot, blew thunderous claps on their trumpets, then went back into the chariot and disappeared. Total blackness then was dumped on the spirit. This incident is called "Incident l." I remember hearing about a Willie B. Wilson, a Texas oil millionaire, who read OT-3, panicked, and would not believe it or go on. The cult soon indoctrinated away his doubts and fears with more auditing -- at his expense.
These spirits, after you audit them, are supposed to be exorcised and leave your body. They go find another body, usually at a hospital maternity ward. But if you exorcise your demons incorrectly they will go into a "spin" that Hubbard calls "free wheeling." He says your body will not be able to sleep for days on end and you will die from illness, usually pneumonia. Hubbard talks about demons extensively in his "Dianetics" book, but you never for a minute think he means "demons" literally. On OT-3 you find out that he really does.
A cult member at Level 1, with his smiling sincerity, has no idea that he will become the victim of efforts to exorcise demonic spirits from him on OT-3. If he knew, before the Level 2 programming, he would probably run 90 miles an hour from this ominous cult.
While doing OT-3, I broke down and couldn't take it any more.
I ran away for three days, the worst three days of my life. I
thought I was hearing the voices of demons talking to me. I drank
a lot trying to stop the voices and the fears. I thought I was
going to die because I had exorcised a demon in the wrong manner.
I was so terrified I couldn't sleep for three days, which convinced
me even further that the cult was right. I called a Guardian's
Office staff member named John Fisher who reminded me of the life-and-death
danger I was in and told me to come in right away. I was terrified
and so I did. They gave me more auditing and I believed I was
better and safe, so I calmed down.
After that, the Guardian's Office dismissed me from staff, as I was a security risk. The cult then told me I owed them $9,000 for services received while working for almost nothing for two years. I was told I would have to pay before I could finish OT-3, and was still in danger because I had not finished it. With only one thing on my mind ("get that money!"), I went to Denver and then to Minneapolis, where I worked as a salesman as hard as I could to raise the money. I was terrified of a recurrence of those three days in LA. I thought I would get all kinds of illnesses if I didn't finish OT-3 fast. Motivated by this life and death necessity, I raised the money fast.
While in Minneapolis I ran into an auditor, Katy Regan, who was
interested in a romantic relationship with me and gave me another
100 hours of auditing. I was getting worse, having accidents,
having to drink to stop the "demons" that were never
there before Hubbard's OT-3, and I was getting ill constantly.
Kate Regan lent me $5,000 that was paid to the cult beyond the
$9,000 I had to pay after being dismissed from staff. I went to
Clearwater, Florida, and received 25 more hours of auditing and,
as usual, felt better for a while after riding the subjective
euphoria. Afterward it disappeared again -- as usual.
I was OK'd by the cult again to continue OT-3. I flew back to LA and finished the level. After finishing OT-3, I decided to move away and start my own business. Away from cult auditing I started doing better. I realize now that I should have stayed away, but the cult salesmen heard that I had money again. This time it was Hubbard's new miracle cure, "L-12," $7,500 for 25 hours of auditing. I was told by Barry Watson, when he spoke in Minneapolis, that this was the "Immortality Rundown" and that after receiving it a person would be able to select his next body and parents in his next lifetime. I was told that an individual can never become a potential trouble source (PTS) again and never get ill again. I felt compelled to buy this level to protect myself with the best "insurance policy" ever written (L-12). I got sick six times shortly after L-12. I started feeling like "many people" again. I was afraid again.
I remembered what a cult member had told me about the "L's." He had been there with Hubbard when he developed this next wonder cure. He said the L's were so powerful they bypassed the normal protections of the mind. If they screwed up the L's on a person, you might as well build that person a wooden box. Well, they tried to correct L-12 on me three times. They had really screwed it up this time. I was growing more fearful and confused -- now even upset with the cult as well. I remembered Hubbard's words from HCO PL 23 May 1968: "We are selling actual salvage from death." I kept on, for some unknown reason, still believing the cult could be my salvation and that of the planet.
I went back to my business and started having problems such as uncontrollable emotional outbursts, "demons" talking in my head, and more confusions. I started to have problems keeping my business together. I started fighting with my employees. My emotionalism and depressions were getting worse and worse.
Then I heard about Hubbard's newest cure, "NED for OT's." It promised to handle all my past auditing problems and was the answer to the "serious bodily consequences" said to result from incorrect auditing after "clear." I knew that this was it. I borrowed $20,000 from my father under the false pretense of needing it for business expansion. I just had to have the money for NED-OT. My health, life, and sanity depended on it. I gave the cult another 14,000.
Hubbard calls NED for OT's "the second wall of fire" (OT-3 had been merely "THE wall of fire"). On NED-OT, Hubbard talks about a yet another kind of spirits that surround and are attached to the body, ones which think they are "dead." Hubbard calls them "dormant." He describes these spirits as living in the past, believing they are in another time, so dumb and low in conscious awareness that they can believe they are almost anything. They may think they are animals, insects, objects like chairs, machinery, air -- anything you can imagine, they can be. These spirits influence you by making images and presenting them to you. When they "wake up" they copy almost everything they "see." You are warned on this level not to watch TV because it upsets the demons. Hubbard answers the question of inherited insanity by stating that these newly discovered "demons" can hop from one person to another and can be passed on from family member to family member.
In the NED-OT materials, Hubbard calls F.B.I. and C.I.A. men "dormant clusters" and doomed for eternity. He depicts them as sub-human, to make it easier for cult members to strike against them with no remorse.
I received 37 hours of auditing on NED for OT's. I was the 10th completion on earth and came off that level totally believing that it worked. After all, this was my last hope and I had to believe or be trapped forever. After I finished this level, the cult flew me all over the U.S. to speak to large audiences and give them fantastic subjective success testimonials. They paid all my expenses. They distributed my success stories all over the U.S. My subjective euphoria from NED for OT's helped ignite a mass euphoria, sparked old cult members' hopes, and began the biggest cash boom the cult had ever seen.
My subjective euphoria remained intact for two months (perhaps sustained by all the attention) and then disappeared again. The same old things came back only much, much worse. New "demons" and new fears arose. I spent days in an almost catatonic state. I couldn't function. I was afraid to go to work and see people. I started drinking heavily to get rid of the nightmares. I felt betrayed. I wanted to get away from the cult.
A horrifying thought hung in my mind -- it was better to destroy myself and sacrifice myself rather than betray the cult. I felt so upset. I was torn between these self-destructive thoughts and an emerging desire to take legal action against them. But the unknown compulsions once again compelled me to protect the cult at any expense.
The Level 2 indoctrination was too strong. I called the cult and they hurried me back to Clearwater. By this time my business was in trouble due to my inability to function, my mental and emotional condition, and the upsets that occurred while I was there. The cult audited me 25 more hours, but it was useless. They had screwed up their programming too bad for even them to repair. I was asking questions that you, as a cult member, just don't ask. I wasn't buying the propaganda any more. At this time, while I was upset and confused, they coerced me into signing a $12,500 I.O.U. for 25 more hours of auditing. They also tried to get me to sign self-incriminating affidavits, which I refused.
I decided to leave. They met with me and told me that I should not see anyone in the mental health field and tell them about my auditing and my problems. I promised them I wouldn't. I wanted to be left alone.
I knew that I would be seen as a security risk and threat to Scientology,
and I knew what that meant. For protection, I told them I had
written up all my experiences with the cult and put it in safe
deposit boxes with instructions that the data go to the F.B.I.
if I was harmed. They are cold and ruthless, but logical in their
ruthlessness and would not bring the authorities down on themselves
by doing me physical harm while there was any chance that I would
stay quiet.
It was not until recently that I understood why the cult started a black PR campaign to drive me out of business. Someone in the inner circle must have decided that, since my programming wasn't working, I was a security risk and something had to be done to destroy any possible means I might have to finance an attack against the cult. Two Guardian's Office agents, John Matoon and Karen Kuyper, started a set of rumors and passed them to other cult members. They said I was unethical, violated cult secret data, and crazy. The rumors caused others in the cult to call an investigation of me and my business. Defending myself and running my business at the same time was impossible while trying to keep my head on after the auditing I had received.
The cult rumors caused upset and turmoil in my company, and cult members who worked for me began to leave. Customers mysteriously stopped paying their bills. $60,000 I had extended to fellow cult members was not being paid back to me. Then I found out that letters had been sent to them or they had been called and told not to do business with me. At that time 95% of my customers were cult members. When they would not pay me, I couldn't pay my people and my bills. The next year I had to close a business that had done almost a million dollars gross and earned more than 12% pre-tax net because of the cult's Black PR against me. The following is quoted from a letter distributed by W.I.S.E. ("World Institute of Scientology Enterprises," a cult division). I had asked them to help me collect money owed to me by other cult members.
"With American Factors now being the legal owners of the invoices you have recieved (sic) from Wollersheim and NF Marketing, the sums owed by your company must now be paid to American Factors. I am apprising you of this, not based on any desire to represent Wollersheim and get his debts paid but to alert you to the fact that non payment of debts to a non Scientology company can bring about legal suit in an effort to collect these funds. Wollersheim was on a WISE ethics handling program having been assigned a condition of Confusion by WISE and having had a Non Enturbulation Order placed on him by the Church of Scientology. He has gone out of communication with WISE on this handling and it is probable that no ethics change is occuring (sic) with the current gradient of ethics in use. You would be well advised not to deal with him as he is not in good standing with WISE." - Roger C. Barnes, Executive Director WISE.
Since leaving the cult and by writing this, I have begun to understand what was done to me. I have started to feel more like myself again, as I was before I got involved in the cult. I am in communication again with both my parents whom I love very much. I am trying to reverse and adjust to the fear and propaganda the cult programmed into me. I look forward to living a normal life again. I have gone back to the basic and humanitarian beliefs of the Catholic religion I was raised in.
I have had many problems throughout this whole ordeal, all relating
to fears and ideas from Level 2 Scientology -- nightmares being
the least of it.
CULT TACTICS, POLICY, & STRATEGY
The following is a list of tactics Scientology uses or has planned to use on its critics, adversaries, or enemies. Tactics which I have not personally witnessed are documented by material seized in the F.B.I.'s raid on the cult's Los Angeles headquarters. The F.B.I. materials are public record in a court case which sent 11 top Scientology officials to prison, including Hubbard's wife.
I have culled and listed these tactics and "church" policies for several reasons:
l) To better understand Scientology's actual activities, as opposed to the PR image they assert,
2) To prepare myself for actions that Scientology will use against me and my friends and family,
3) To communicate to others who speak or write about Scientology what dangers they may face, so they too can prepare,
4) To show that this cult's conduct is illegal, immoral, outrageous, and unworthy of sanction by any civilized church or organization,
5) To encourage public demand for a full investigation of this cult's activities, policies, and finances through Grand Juries and other legal measures, and
6) To make this situation publicly known, so that others may not have to go through the pain, loss, and upsets I have experienced with Scientology.
The tactics listed below are not the "renegade" action of an isolated few, but are a direct expression of the policies and "Command Intention" of cult founder L. Ron Hubbard.
"If anyone is getting industrious trying to enturbulate or stop Scientology or its activities, I can make Captain Bligh look like a Sunday-school teacher. There is probably no limit on what I would do to safeguard Man's only road to freedom against persons who...seek to stop Scientology or hurt Scientologists." - L. Ron Hubbard, August 15, 1967
In a policy directive, Hubbard exhorts cult members to "investigate noisily" (i.e., harass) individuals who attack the "church." (Emphasis added.)
From an August l5, 1960 policy letter:
"Always find or manufacture enough threats against them to cause them to sue for peace."
Does "manufacture threats" sound like the religious practice of any present day church? Does it sound humanitarian? The key words are definitely "find or manufacture." Judge for yourself as you read these pages if the cult, under the policy directives of its leader, is willing to manufacture threats if they can't find an existing vulnerability.
In a confidential board policy letter of 30 May 1974 entitled "Handling Hostile Agents/Dead Agenting", the following statement is attributed to Hubbard.
"It is my specific intention that by the use of professional PR tactics any opposition be not only dulled but permanently eradicated."
To counter what Hubbard labeled the "black propaganda" of others against Scientology, the founder wrote:
"If there will be a long term threat you are to immediately evaluate and originate a black PR campaign to destroy the person's repute and to discredit them so thoroughly that...they will be ostracized."
Looking further at Hubbard's own discussion of Black PR, from HCO PL 21 November 1972, "How to Handle Black Propaganda":
"Black propaganda" (Black - bad or derogatory, propaganda = pushing out statements or ideas) is the term used to destroy reputation or public belief in persons, companies or nations. It is a common tool of agencies who are seeking to destroy real or fancied enemies or seek dominance in some field. The technique seeks to bring a reputation so low that the person, company or nation is denied any rights whatever by "general agreement." It is then possible to destroy the person, company or nation with a minor attack if the Black Propaganda itself has not already accomplished this."
What present day religion by deliberate policy attempts to ruin a person's, company's or nation's reputation so that the hated entity will be denied all rights and be ostracized? This sounds more like the tactics of mobsters, or a greedy and unethical business intent on eliminating competition for the sake of financial profit.
In a policy of 11 May 1971, Hubbard confesses:
"Anyone engaging in Black Propaganda is either using a wrong way to right a wrong or confessing he can't make it in open competition."
This policy letter was broadly distributed for PR reasons, to suggest that Scientology doesn't do that. The confidential May 30 1974 policy was for internal use only, to eliminate criticism of Scientology: one policy for image and one for action.
"You find out where he or she works or worked, doctor, dentist, friends, neighbors, anyone and phone them up and say "I am investigating Mr./Mrs....for criminal activities as he/she has been trying to prevent man's freedom and is restricting my religious freedom and that of my friends and children" etc....You say now and then, "I have really got some astounding facts,"etc, (use some generality) it doesn't matter if you get much info just be noisy, it's very odd at first but it makes fantastic sense and works."
Hubbard is advising how to destroy a person's reputation and repute with generalities.
In a policy called "The Anti-Social Personality The Anti-Scientologist," Hubbard lists some very revealing attributes of the "anti-social personality":
1. "He or she speaks only in very broad generalities...particularly when imparting rumor."
2. "Such a person deals mainly in bad news critical or hostile remarks..."
3. "The antisocial personality alters, to worsen, communication when he or she relays a message or news...Such a person also pretends to pass on "bad news" which is in actual fact invented."
8. "Many antisocial persons will freely confess to the most alarming crimes when forced to do so, but will have no faintest sense of responsibility for them."
Hubbard has described himself and Scientology.
TACTIC: Covert infiltration of organizations and agencies by cult members -- for three purposes, according to documents seized by the F.B.I.
A. To determine what negative data on Scientology exists so that it can be countered.
B. To provide an early warning system to alert the "church" of any threats of government action against Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard or his wife Mary Sue.
C. To obtain any data that reflects negatively on Scientology critics so that it can be used to discredit the critics.
Documents seized by the F.B.I. include "church" communications
outlining an elaborate campaign to infiltrate more than 130 government
agencies. (This hardly sounds like a "church" interested
in protecting privacy and Constitutional Rights, yet a favorite
defense of the "church" is that it is a religion whose
Constitutional Rights are being violated.)
TACTIC: Staging a fake hit and run auto accident involving a pedestrian (in an effort to disgrace Gabriel Cazares, a former mayor of Clearwater Florida and Scientology critic). This was discovered in "church" documents seized in the FBI raid.
TACTIC: Circulating false stories. Example: Mark Sableman,
reporter for the Clearwater Sun, was critical of Scientology.
According to documents seized by the F.B.I. Scientologists circulated
a rough draft of a fictitious news story under Sableman's name,
alleging that 19 Florida legislators were linked to the Mafia,
gambling interests, and were involved in bribery, blackmail, and
illegal transactions. This was intended to discredit Sableman
professionally in the eyes of the Florida Legislature.
TACTIC: Mailing bomb threats and framing a Scientology critic.
In its October 1977 raid, the F.B.I. uncovered documents that
showed the "church" had directed its agents to steal
Paulette Cooper's stationary, get her fingerprints on it, type
bomb threats on the stolen stationary, and send them to Henry
Kissinger and to the "church" itself. Then, the "church"
called the F.B.I. to report a bomb threat against it, and gave
Paulette Cooper's name as a suspect.
TACTIC: Harassment to the point where the victim will be incarcerated
in a mental institution. Paulette Cooper, a "church"
critic, was the victim of false bomb threats and an elaborately
planned "church" operation called "Operation Freakout"
whose purpose was to cause a mental breakdown and silence a cult
critic. Details of their plan were revealed after the F.B.I. raid.TACTIC:
Impersonating an individual to frame and discredit her.
Another tactic revealed in the "Operation Freakout"
documents was to impersonate and frame Paulette Cooper. The Paulette
Cooper impersonator was to go to a laundromat near Cooper's home,
act wild and crazy, threaten to kill the President, and then leave.
A second cult member inside the laundromat would tell the laundromat
personnel to report the threat made against the President.
TACTIC: Breaking into the office of a critic's attorney.
Cult documents seized by the F.B.I. show that the cult broke into
the offices of attorneys for critics and adversaries of the cult.
TACTIC: Swearing out false suits to discredit a critic.
In order to discredit Gene Allard, a former "church"
bookkeeping employee, Scientologists filed a suit claiming
he stole $27,000. The "church" knew that Allard
had turned their records over to the I.R.S. and hoped to discredit
him as a witness against the cult. Allard sued the cult and won
a $300,000 settlement for malicious prosecution.
TACTIC: Impersonating an individual hostile to Scientology
to gain access to information feared by the "church."
A "church" agent who had infiltrated the B.B.B. in 1974
(Miss Canavarro) persuaded B.B.B. officials to open their files
on Scientology to her husband, who she identified as a freelance
writer critical of Scientology. He was in fact a Scientologist
seeking out the B.B.B.'s files on Scientology.
TACTIC: Electronic eavesdropping and bugging. The F.B.I.
discovered, in their investigations, that the cult had bugged
I.R.S. meetings where the cult's tax status was discussed.
TACTIC: Creating "social reform" front groups
as a means of defending the cult by attacking its critics. Internal
policy directives seized by the F.B.I. seem to indicate that the
above is the real purpose of social reform groups the "church"
has set up.
TACTIC: Using a disgruntled member of an anti-Scientology group
to circulate anonymous pro-Scientology PR. An example of this
tactic occurred in June 1972 in England where a supposed member
of the National Association of Mental Health ("a disgruntled
doctor") circulated an unsigned leaflet derogatory of the
association's director and policies. Although it was not proven
conclusively, the association felt the source was Scientology
as they were involved in heated conflicts with the cult at that
time.
TACTIC: Cult agents obtain jobs in critic's organizations
for gathering intelligence covertly for the cult. This was documented
by evidence gathered in the F.B.I. raid.
TACTIC: Forced incarceration of a potential critic. Micheal
Meisner, a "church" member, was held under 24-hour guard
when he announced he was going to turn himself in to the authorities
for burglaries he had committed on behalf of Scientology. He finally
escaped his captivity and offered to cooperate with authorities.
His testimony led to the F.B.I. raid, convictions, and jail sentences
of 11 top "church" officials.
TACTIC: Make false identification as necessary to aid in
covert operations. The F.B.I. has documented that several Scientologists
made up false I.R.S. and Treasury Department ID's to gain access
to Scientology's files kept in those agencies.
TACTIC: Falsely claim that you were acting alone when caught
in illegal, immoral, or embarrassing situations during a "church"
operation. This is as old as Mission Impossible's self-destructing
tapes routine. This tactic was obfuscated by an official "church"
document and press release after the F.B.I. raid had documented
conspiracy. The obfuscation claimed that the "church"
does not condone illegal activities. Yet the 11 indicted "church"
members were the very highest officials in the intelligence section
whose very job, policy, and training from Hubbard's own directives
was to do that very thing their PR claimed the "church"
does not condone.
TACTIC: Use privileged "confessional" material against critics. A Scientology policy called the "Auditor's Code" promises not to reveal the secrets of a person who is receiving auditing. Scientology president Heber Jentz stated in a BBC television interview that such files are absolutely confidential. But the fact is that personal or embarrassing data told in confidence while in auditing will be used if needed to silence you. In the two-million dollar damage suit against Scientology which was won by a Portland woman, Julie Titchbourne, the cult's lawyer (Mr. Kennedy) said that Mrs. Titchbourne's auditing files (if admitted as evidence) would show that Mrs. Tichborne had problems with her parents, drugs, and sex.
There are many celebrities and even some politicians who have
received "confidential" auditing. Will their files be
brought out to embarrass them if they speak up against Scientology
or don't follow the cult's orders? Scientology's policies are
one thing - - its actions are another.
TACTIC: Breaking and entering. Clearwater Sun reporter
Mark Sableman's apartment was broken into and his typewriter used
to write a phony and discrediting story about Florida legislators.
The F.B.I. discovered in seized "church" documents that
Scientologists had circulated the phony story under Sableman's
name. Paulette Cooper's apartment was also entered illegally.
TACTIC: Framing critics for lewd sexual conduct. A Scientology
document seized by the F.B.I. labeled "Priority A" outlined
an operation planned on cult critic Sableman. The plan called
for an elderly Scientology agent from outside the area to go to
the editor of the Clearwater Sun and accuse Sableman of
molesting the agent's son. The Scientology operative was to throw
a lurid magazine in the editor's face and scream, "Look what
he gave to my son, not to mention what the pervert did...sob,
sob, sob, sob, my Johnny."
TACTIC: Framing a critic in connection with organized crime.
The same plan "Priority A" called for linking Betty
Orsini (a critic of Scientology and reporter for the St. Petersburg
Times) to an organized crime figure in Florida. A Scientology
operative was to deliver an envelope containing $100 cash to the
editor of the St. Petersburg Times and say the envelope
was in return for information Mrs. Orsini had given the mobster.
TACTIC: Burglary and theft. The St. Petersburg Times'
lawyer's offices were burglarized by "church" operatives,
as F.B.I. raid documents revealed.
TACTIC: Stealing books and materials from public agencies.
While I was on staff at "Celebrity Center," a Scientology
organization in Los Angeles, another staff member (Ken Lee) came
to me and proudly announced he had secretly stolen books and articles
from the various libraries in L.A. County. This allegedly was
part of a Guardian's Office intelligence action to remove books
and articles critical of Scientology from the city's library system.
These tactics which Scientology has used or planned to use against its critics show the true face of the cult as revealed by its actions, not its words. One must wonder about a cult that regularly cries "religious harassment" and "violation of the First Amendment" to defend illegal, inhumane, and immoral activities toward others.
There are questions of conscience to be answered. Is this cult putting itself above and outside the law, the Constitution, and ethical treatment of other human beings? How far will the cult go? Will the murder of critics or enemies occur -- or has it occurred? Is a new Jonestown brewing as authorities close in on this cult's crimes?
After 11 years in Scientology, my personal opinion is that the Jonestown potential does exist. After Jonestown, many people wondered how our intelligence and law enforcement agencies could have so completely failed to understand that cult and its fanaticism. Are we going to repeat that same mistake with Scientology? Did we learn nothing about cult fanaticism from Jonestown?
On June 25, 1971, on the Flagship "Apollo" (Hubbard's secret home and Sea Org headquarters) Susan Meister died, an apparent suicide. A full investigation should be opened into her death. Maybe she was trying to leave the cult, as Micheal Meisner did after breaking away from his 24-hour-a-day cult guards. Maybe she was receiving the same kind of auditing on upper confidential levels that almost drove me to self destruction before I got away from the cult.
Hubbard's own words and policy predict the lengths to which cult members will go. In an Oct 7 1962 policy called "Fair Game", he states:
"Fair Game may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. Fair Game may be tricked, sued, or lied to, or destroyed."- L. Ron Hubbard.
"Injured by any means" and "destroyed" are very strong and explicit words from the head of a cult. Jim Jones also had strong and explicit instructions in life and death matters too.
In another policy called "The Responsibility of Leaders," 12 February 1967, Hubbard lays out the secret of building and maintaining power. His "power formula" is closely and proudly followed by Guardian's Office members and all Scientologists who believe in what the cult calls "ethics." Hubbard says:
"When you move off a point of power, pay all your obligations on the nail, empower all your friends completely and move off with your pockets full of artillery, potential blackmail on every erstwhile rival, unlimited funds in your private account and the addresses of experienced assassins..."
In the same policy letter:
"So to live at all in the shadow or employ of a power you must yourself gather and USE enough power to hold your own - without just nattering to the power to "kill Pete", in straightforward or more suppressive veiled ways to him as these wreck the power that supports yours. He doesn't have to know all the bad news and if he's a power really he won't ask all the time, "What are all those dead bodies doing at the door? And if you are clever, you never let it be thought HE killed them - that weakens you and also hurts the power source. "Well, boss, about all those dead bodies, nobody at all will suppose you did lt. She over there, those pink legs sticking out, didn't like me." "Well," he'll say if he really is a power, "why are you bothering me with it if it's done and you did it. Where's my blue ink?" Or "Sklpper, three shore patrolmen will be along soon with your cook, Dober, and they'll want to tell you he beat up Simson." "Who's Simson?" "He's a clerk in the enemy office downtown." Good, when they've done it, take Dober down to the dispensary for any treatment he needs. Oh yes, Raise his pay....And lastly and most important, for we all aren't on the stage with our names in lights, always push power in the direction of anyone on whose power you depend. It may be more money for the power, or more ease, or a snarling defense of the power to a critic, or even the dull thud of one of his enemies in the dark, or the glorious blaze of the whole enemy camp as a birthday surprise"... - L. Ron Hubbard.
You be the judge. Does the above sound like religion -- or does it more nearly resemble testimony heard at the Nuremberg trials? But are Scientologists really using policy directives like this? Again, you be the judge.
The F.B.I. learned from documents obtained in its 1977 raid that a Los Angeles "church" official had written to his superior that a confidential source could obtain a worker's keys to doors to the room where the Attorney General's Office kept Scientology files. The senior official responded: "Methods have historically been comm'd (communicated) between BI (the intelligence bureau of Scientology) people directly. Seniors do not need to know this data generally."
It's right out of the "power policy" directive by Hubbard.
One of the cult's highest covert agents, Micheal Meisner (after he escaped from cult detention and turned himself in to authorities), was placed in protective custody because he and government officials feared for his life. Who would know the cult's tactics better than an old and established top level cult operative?
In Sutton Ontario, Scientologists conducted a mock funeral for the family of an outspoken critic, in his small hometown. Is that religious practice, or a fear tactic better suited to the Mafia?
During the two-million dollar suit against Scientology by Julie Titchbourne of Portland, Oregon, a juror was excused after four "anonymous" death threats: "If your findings are against the Scientology church you will be killed. A policeman was listening on the phone and heard the voice say, "I will get you, I will get you." But the police could not identify the caller.
Hubbard's policy directive titled "Suppressive Acts" lists acts which are considered to make one an enemy of Scientology and thus subject to the cult's "Fair Game" policy. These include: "testifying as a hostile witness against Scientology in public" and "proposing, advising, or voting for legislation, ordinances, rules, or laws directed toward the suppression of Scientology."
Exercise of free speech or the right of petition, or serving on a jury, makes one the target of policies such as:
"The defense of anything is untenable. The only way to defend anything is to attack."..."People who attack Scientology are criminals."..."Groups that attack us to say the least are not sane..." - February 18, 1966. "Only attacks resolve threats..." - August 15, 1960. "...Don't ever submit tamely to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on the attackers all the way."
A 1955 publication by Hubbard still sold in "church" bookstores states:
"the purpose of a lawsuit...is to harass and discourage rather than to win. We do not want Scientology to be reported in the press anywhere but in the religious pages of the newspaper. Therefore, we should be very alert to sue for slander at the slightest chance so as to discourage the public presses from mentioning Scientology."
Fourteen lawsuits were filed against journalist Paulette Cooper to tie up her money, time, and emotions.
HCO PL 17 February 1966 discusses harassment by "noisy investigation":
"The mechanism employed is very straight forward. We never use the data to threaten to expose. We simply collect it and expose it."
HCO PL 25 December 1965 summarizes the attitude which gives rise to these policies:
"A suppressive person becomes fair game. By fair game is meant may not be further protected by the codes and disciplines of Scientology...They cannot be granted the rights and beingness ordinarily accorded rational beings and so place themselves beyond any consideration for their feelings or well being."
The Nazis had to learn to perceive Jews as sub-human and not worthy of personal rights before they could imprison and exterminate them. Hubbard's contempt for human rights is enforced upon his followers:
"The homes, property, places, abodes of persons who have been active in attempting to suppress Scientology or Scientologists are all beyond any protection of Scientology ethics."
HCO PL 7 February 1965 dictates what cult members are to believe about themselves in relation to the world around them:
"Look how we ourselves are attacked by "public opinion" media yet there is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves."
Hubbard's policy letter "The Anti-Social Personality The Anti-Scientologist" again describes his own behavior, the role model for all cult members:
"The basic reason the antisocial personality behaves as he or she does lies in a hidden terror of others...The fixation is that survival itself depends on "keeping others down"...Such a person has no trust to a point of terror...When such a personality goes insane the world is full of Martians or the FBI and each person met is really a Martian or FBI agent."
In the 1950's Hubbard sent a letter to the F.B.I. that was released in 1977, claiming that Russians were trying to lure him to the Soviet Union to acquire his secrets in brainwashing. This was not the first such communication the Justice Department had received from Hubbard, nor would it be the last. Four years later the F.B.I. made a notation "appears mental" on one of his missives and ceased acknowledging them.
What kind of man is motivating thousands of cult members? To what extremes will his controlled followers go?
From HCO PL 11 May 1971:
"Exploding it" (black Propaganda) "to the public ideally is an effort to make the public a Vigilante committee...Threat and mystery are the lot and power of intelligence."
From another policy directive of 21 November 1972:
"Don't stay on the same subject being attacked on...You only challenge statements you can prove are false and in any conversation let the rest slide."
These last two points say a lot about cult strategy and make them more predictable. When they sue for libel, any relevant points not mentioned by the cult are probably true and the cult doesn't want them brought up because they could be proved wrong or guilty. Also, in their press releases and defensive PR actions, when they attack with broad generalities (yellow journalism sensationalism directed toward their "enemies), they are trying to misdirect the public's attention away from a vulnerability of their own. What they are hiding can be found.
The "dirty tricks" are carried out by loyal group members who have learned to "correctly understand" the justifications of their actions.
After I had had enough auditing to be considered safely captive, I was approached by the cult's chief covert operative director in Minneapolis, Bob Kuyper. I was asked to infiltrate the A.M.A. in Chicago and get their Scientology files. He didn't want to know how I would obtain the information. He just wanted the information. He also asked me to tail a local psychiatrist and gather all the incriminating evidence I could on the guy, as he was giving the "church" trouble. (I was unable to penetrate the A.M.A. in Chicago and did not have time to do an extensive intelligence gathering mission on the psychiatrist before I was called away from Minneapolis on business.)
As I look back at my willingness to become an agent of the cult and my pride and sense of honor that the cult would select me, I am not surprised. I was totally indoctrinated and mentally dominated by the values, goals, ethics, mind control techniques, and policies of the cult. I had read what Hubbard wrote about enemies of the cult -- many of the same things you are reading now. I believed that enemies of the cult were criminals, insane, had no rights, and had to be stopped no matter what. If we failed, all mankind might be lost. I never questioned. Laws of the land and the Constitution were insignificant compared to the greater safety and future of all mankind (which only the cult could provide). Hubbard had written:
"We're not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn't cute or something to do for lack of something better m e whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology. This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance. Remember, this is our first chance to do so in all the endless trillions of years of the past'. Don't muff it now because it seems unpleasant or unsociable to do Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten. Do them and we'll win " - L. Ron Hubbard.
"Seven" means "hammering out of existence incorrect technology." "Eight" means "knocking out incorrect applications." "Nine" means "closing the door on any possibility of incorrect technology." "Ten" means "closing the door on incorrect application." Remember that "correct technology" means only the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. It is obvious that the rights of the A.M.A. and psychiatrists, and of any critics, will have to be sacrificed for the good of all. After 11 years in the cult, I believe this is the prevalent logic and attitude of indoctrinated cult members.
The cult's rationalization of such attitudes is based on a self-serving perversion of "ethics," which Hubbard defines as "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics."
"Dynamics" is defined in the Scientology Technical Dictionary:
"DYNAMICS, there could be said to be eight urges (drives, impulses) in life. These we call dynamics. These are motives or motivations. We call them the eight dynamics. The first dynamic - is the urge toward existence as one's self...The second dynamic - is the urge toward existence as a sexual or bisexual activity... The third dynamic - is the urge toward existence as groups of individuals...The fourth dynamic - is the urge toward existence as mankind...The fifth dynamic - is the urge toward existence of the animal kingdom... The sixth dynamic - is the urge toward existence as the physical universe. The seventh dynamic - is the urge toward existence as or of spirits The eighth dynamic - is the urge toward existence as infinity. This is also identified as the Supreme Being."
Since all the dynamics would be harmed by anything which harms Scientology, it follows that it is "ethical" to do anything to stop anyone from harming Scientology. That is "ethics" in Scientology.
During my eleven years in the cult we were only too glad to help the Guardian's Office stop Scientology's enemies. lt was a highest honor to be in the intelligence corp (Guardian's Office, now renamed Office of Special Affairs) or to be a helper or agent of the Guardian's Office.
Years later I ran into Bob Kuyper (the chief cult operative for Minneapolis) in Los Angeles, where he told me the "church's" attitude is that it is at war. He told me that the "Bible" for cult policy in this war is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. That book, he told me, is secretly used in the training of Guardian's Office agents and personnel, and is never to be carried openly or discussed with new cult members. He told me where to get the book (Pickwick Book Store on Hollywood Blvd in LA) and how to order the book and not arouse suspicion. I bought the book and read it. It is mandatory that anyone involved in a conflict with Scientology buy and study that book. It is, as Kuyper said, their "Bible" of strategy against enemies. Almost all of the tactics and policies mentioned in this affidavit are explained in "The Art of War."
This book makes cult tactics understandable and predictable, and breaks the mystery which they cultivate so carefully. The fear they seek to inspire (through an appearnace of being invisible and everywhere) becomes almost laughable when you know their policies, tactics and strategies, and can predict what they will do to you. You can prepare counter-measures to protect your family and associates. You can inform the authorities of the types of frame-ups and harassment that may be used against you. Remember Hubbard's words in HCO PL 11 May 1971:
"Threat and mystery are the lot and power of intelligence."
I would not have known of this book if it hadn't been for Bob Kuyper.
Hubbard draws on this book in policy directives. From HCO PL 21 November 1972:
"The technique of proving utterances false is called "DEAD AGENTING." It's in the first book of the Chinese espionage. When the enemy agent gives false data, those who believed him but now find it false kill him - or at least cease to believe him."
In HCO PL 13 August 1970,
"Sun Tzu in his book about warfare gives several types of agent. One of these is they Dead Agent. Because he tells lies to the enemy and when they find out they will kill him."
(As a side point, the Sun Tzu book is apparently used by the Chinese and Russians in developing their military strategy. I hope our military has a copy and have read it.)
In a broad public release policy, Hubbard tells his low-level followers how to handle Black PR. This public policy directly contradicts his confidential instructions to high-level operatives, as revealed in documents seized by the F.B.I.
The public policy, from HCO PL 21 November 1972, is:
1. Fill the vacuum of omitted data with factual data.
2. Prove all false utterances heard are lies.
3. Discredit every rumor encountered.
4. Handle the interest level with any utterance.
5. Carefully study out the scene until the exact source is
located.
6. Use the knowledge of source to impede or destroy the
source of Black Propaganda by
non-criminal means.
7. Continue to fill the vacuum of no data with good data
using any channels available."
When the F.B.I. raided the cult's headquarters in Los Angeles, they found a gun and knockout drops.
What is a religion doing with those things in its intelligence section? Why does a religion Mace-equip its security guards around the clock? The cult, when attacked, is the first to cry "religious persecution." It claims to be protecting the Constitution, the First Amendment, and the Bill of Rights. But how does it actually treat personal privacy and the right of free speech when someone is critical of them? What religion uses fear and intimidation more suited to the Nazis or the Mafia to silence its critics?
In another 10 page "church" directive seized by the F.B.I., it was revealed that a point system was developed to reward cult members involved in covert intelligence gathering. "Files obtained or documents obtained covertly or clandestinely including ripped off Scn (Scientology) materials are worth 2 points per document," - according to the seized directive. "If an enemy of Scientology becomes unable or unwilling to attack further, 100 points would be given to the responsible section of the intelligence bureau." If an agent's cover was blown and he or she was traced back to the "church," the agent would lose 50 points. From my personal knowledge and observation while a staff member, the Guardian's Office did use a point system. The rewards were points, time off, pay bonuses, and auditing awards worth many thousands of dollars.
Hubbard's policy directives are terrifying. As the cult's crimes are exposed and the group's leaders become increasingly desperate, there will be real danger of a Jonestown-type denouement, as the pressure of public exposure and congressional investigation triggered the Jonestown deaths. Whether Scientology becomes another Jonestown depends upon the courage of those who know what's going on to speak up in time, start legal measures in time, and investigate the activities of this cult in a fully legal manner which respects their rights but also resolves the question of the cult's purpose and activities, and applies due legal restraint where proven necessary.
If the cult has nothing to hide, why would it object to qualified public evaluation of the secret mental practices it claims to be so powerful and beneficial? Why would it object to disclosure of the finances, codes, internal policies and activities regarding adversaries for which any other public corporation is accountable? - - if it is a religion and not violating the law. It's time to clear the air. After all, why should a religion fear if it is operating in humanitarian ways?
After being a loyal and totally brainwashed cult member for 11 years, I can shed some light from my observations and understanding of cult policy and pressures on how Scientology will operate in court. They will defend themselves with basically three types of witnesses.
If you took the common elements of all religious philosophies and a little common sense, and wrote it up, the result would sound something like the ten commandments and most people would agree these are good living principles and are humanitarian. That is what I call "Level 1" Scientology. This is how Scientology looks like a religion. This derivative amalgam is about as effective as any other common sense Jewish, Christian, or Buddhist philosophy and has about the same level of workability. It offers the same social bonhomie and companionship as any church. A Level 1 Scientologists will sound like any Jew, Christian, or Buddhist who is satisfied with his religion.
The "Level 1 Scientologist" has only been exposed to this general "everybody can agree to" philosophy -- not the confidential policy directives. He or she is naive about what's really going on. He will give glowing testimonials with true sincerity because he is sincere. For him, Scientology has bettered his life. He has applied common sense and a bit of self controlled structure to his life.
The next type of witness Scientology uses is the duped ally. These people may be non-Scientologists, perhaps religious leaders from another demonination, or Scientologists who posess professional qualifications. The duped ally will have been shown all the Level 1 Scientology materials, the religious image everybody can agree to. The cult uses the ally's bona fides to aid their case and gain respectability by association. The ally is duped because he is never shown the confidential auditing material or discreditable policies and tactics used on enemies. Clerics and professionals have been similarly used in the past; many were duped by the Nazis until they found out what was really going on.
While I was on staff, the Guardian's Office went through great efforts to involve other religions in Level 1 projects, to create a religious image to protect the cult's tax-free status. I remember a time when an order came down from the Guardian's Office to have all auditors wear minister's garb -- because the center was expecting a visit from the I.R.S. For about a week all the auditors wore minister's collars. Another time the Guardian's Office did surveys on the average public to find out what they felt a traditional religion or church should look like, and another to learn what the public thinks a cult looks like. The results were used to fine-tune the "church's" image. The cult will go to absolutely any length to project a religious image and protect its tax-free status.
The same use is made of duped civil libertarians who are sincerely interested in protecting the Constitution. The cult uses them to make any attack on the cult's activities seem like the whole Constitution is going down the drain. Unfortunately, few civil libertarians know what goes on in the confidential and secret areas of the cult.
The Guardian's Office has a list of Scientologists who are doctors, psychiatrists, police, dentists, psychologists, social workers, professors, etc, who can be used as "unbiased" and "objective" "expert" witnesses when they are needed. "Experts" in a cult court case will be flown in from another area of the country so they are not recognized locally. They are briefed by the Guardian's Office on what needs to be said, what needs to be defended, what and who attacked. Their professional credibility lends "expert" credibility to the cult's court position.
The last category of witnesses are upper level, covert cult agents who will swear to anything the cult tells them to, to incriminate or discredit any hostile anti-Scientology witnesses. Sometimes these agents say they are Scientologists. Sometimes they come in from other areas of the country to testily and deny they are Scientologists.
All three categories of witnesses can be counted on to lie of they are Scientologists. They will lie if they know it could effect the "church" adversely, even if it means personal danger and hardship to themselves. Here is the logic behind lying on the witness stand:
l) When choosing between telling the truth or telling a lie, they will do whichever doesn't harm Scientology because in their mind Scientology is the only salvation for mankind. Scientology must not be stopped. Individuals are expendable. It would be wrong (by Scientology standards) to do anything that harms the greater number of dynamics (defined earlier). Anything .which harms Scientology automatically harms the greater number of dynamics. Harming Scientology equals harming the greatest number of dynamics.
"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 depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology. This is a deadly serious activity...we may never again have another chance..." - L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 7 Feb. 1965.
Cult members get so pumped up on the idea that their soul, spiritual freedom, and the souls and spiritual freedom of everyone for all eternity is at stake if they don't protect Scientology, they will do anything -- especially not look at the truth. At one time I was brainwashed this way myself.
2) Scientologists will lie to avoid committing "High Crimes (Suppressive Acts)." Persons accused of doing these things are "enemies" who may be declared fair game and denied access to auditing materials on the confidential levels -- the person's only hope for spiritaul freedom, ever. High crimes and suppressive acts are defined by Hubbard as follows.
"HIGH CRIMES (SUPPRESSIVE ACTS) - - - "A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts. SUPPRESSIVE ACTS are acts calculated to impede or destroy Scientology or a Scientologists and which are listed at length below...Suppressive Acts are defined as actions or omissions undertaken to knowingly suppress, reduce or impede Scientology or Scientologists. Cancellation of Certificates, Classifications and Awards and assignment of a Condition of ENEMY are amongst the penalties which can be leveled for this type of offense as well as those recommended by Committees of Evidence.
A. ATTACKS ON SCIENTOLOGY AND SCIENTOLOGISTS
1. Proposing, advising or voting for legislation or ordinances, rules or laws directed towards the suppression of Scientology.
2. Testifying hostilely before state of public inquiries into Scientology to suppress it.
3. Public statements against Scientology or Scientologists but not to Committees of Evidence duly convened.
4. Reporting or threatening to report Scientology o- Scientologists to civil authorities in an effort to suppress Scientology or Scientologists from practicing or receiving standard Scientology.
5. Bringing civil suit against any Scientology Organization or Scientologist including the non-payment of bills or failure to refund without first calling the matter to the attention of the Chairman at World Wide and receiving a reply.
6. Writing anti-Scientology letters to the press or giving anti-Scientology or anti-Scientologist evidence to the press.
7. Testifying as a hostile witness against Scientology in public.
8. Being at the hire of anti-Scientology groups or persons....
11. Receiving money, favors or encouragement to suppress Scientology or Scientologists.
13. Theft or espionage for another group or government.
14. Pronouncing Scientologists guilty of the practice of standard ScientoIogy...
16. Delivering up the person of a Scientologist without defense or protest to the demands of civil or criminal law...
B. DISAVOWAL, SPLINTERING, DIVERGENCE
1. Public disavowal of Scientology or Scientologists in good standing with Scientology Organizations...
6. Continued adherence to a group pronounced a Suppressive group by the Hubbard Communications Office.
7. Aiding or abetting a person demonstrably guilty of Suppressive Acts in such acts.
8. Dependency on other mental or philosophic procedures than Scientology (except medical or surgical) after certification, classification, or award."
No Scientologist who was a good cult member would ever say or do anything in court which was a "Suppressive Act." He would be too terrified of spiritual punishment and possible physical punishment through being labeled "Fair Game." He believes he has far more to lose than the legal penalties of perjury. Because of the nature of this cult, any testimony from cult members must be fully understood and qualified in this light. For example, a Mr. Wolfe (a Scientologist and covert agent) lied to a Grand Jury and was charged with making false statements to the Grand Jury. He stated that he did not know Micheal Meisner by that name despite the fact that Micheal Meisner was his covert operations senior in the cult who he had been working with personally for some time. Anyone involved in litigation with this cult must set up safeguards to ensure objective verification of any testimony by Scientologists.
When I was a thoroughly indoctrinated cult staff member, I thought L. Ron Hubbard could do no wrong and was the most humanitarian being who ever lived. He has a whole corp of personal representatives and PR people who make sure the myth and image of LRH and his wife go untarnished. One cult center holder in Burbank was stripped of a group of missions he had built over years because he spoke critically of Hubbard's wife.
There are "unofficial" stories circulated about Hubbard's
mystical and God-like abilities. One cult member told me that
while Hubbard was "researching" the upper confidential
levels, the whole Apollo ship (some 300 feet long) completely
disappeared for several minutes. There are many stories of Hubbard
leaving his body and visiting people and discovering lost hidden
treasure. The fear tactics discussed in these pages, plus such
manufactured lore, preserve the mystique of an infallible "Superman"
-- part of the systematic deception designed to conceal the enormously
profitable criminal activity of this organization.
MORE ON HUBBARD PERSONALLY
"The world before Dianetics never knew a precision mental science...Researchers in this field were not fully trained in mathematics or scientific methods or logic..." - L. Ron Hubbard, 22 May 1969
A transcript of Hubbard's brief education at George Washington University shows that he did enroll in 1930. He failed calculus and beginning German, got "D" grades, and ended his freshman year on probation. In his sophomore year he failed physics and dropped out at the end of the year.
With typical regard for truth, Scientology's official biography of Hubbard claims that he graduated in mathematics and engineering from George Washington University's Columbia College. When a "church" official was cornered on the discrepancy his answer was, "The Church does not stand or fall on Hubbard's academic record."
Hubbard claimed that he did not receive money from the "church," that he wasn't getting rich. But the "church" provides about 70 personnel to cook, clean, maintain his house and wardrobe, act as messengers and as his personal public relations corp. I was told by one of his personal photographers that he buys the finest handmade clothes, gourmet foods, has the finest and most expensive motorcycles, instruments, and has over 100 cameras -- all the best that money can buy. To hire such a staff would cost about $14,000 per week.
Hubbard's policies require that students purchase their own materials (i.e., Hubbard's books) and that Scientology organizations actively promote public sales of the Dianetics book. In each "church" or mission one or two people work full time doing nothing but selling books and building Hubbard's royalties at no cost to him. Assuming several hundred Scientology organizations worldwide, that's 2-300 sales people collecting money for Hubbard at no cost to him. In 1979 Hubbard ordered that the cost of these books be raised 10% each month and the captive outlets, controlled by Hubbard, complied.
How much money is Scientology making? The Florida "church" took in 2.3 million dollars in one week while I was there -- just at that one location. One of Scientology's top salesmen (Fred Swartz) told me that because of the "church's" tax-free status, almost everything it takes in is profit. Any other business would have to gross billions of dollars to produce the kind of annual profit that Scientology tucks away.
Documents seized by the F.B.I. include a dispatch Mrs. Hubbard sent to key cult personnel ordering that they "use any method at our disposal to win the battle and gain our non profit tax status." From earlier examples you have some idea what "any method" could mean.
"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars the best way would be to start his own religion..." - Hubbard at a New Jersey science fiction writers meeting
Hubbard's personal public relations corp gets "Keys to Cities" in honor of L. Ron Hubbard through the cult's "social reform" front groups. There will be a lot of red-faced city councilmen and mayors when they find out about Hubbard, Scientology, and his tactics. These "honors" are used in cult PR to claim legitimacy for Hubbard, his "religion," and his "humanitarian" goals.
Hubbard has been married three times. L. Ron Hubbard Junior (Hubbard's son and once an avid cult member) now has nothing to do with the cult or his father. While I was on staff I heard about secret projects to reconcile Hubbard's previous wife and estranged son for public relations reasons.
Last March, Hubbard was convicted in France, in absentia, on charges of fraudulent medical practice. He was given a $7,000 fine but did not even appear to defend himself.
Hubbard says he no longer controls the "church." This is also asserted by cult officials. But after 11 years in Scientology, my observation is that Hubbard totally controls the "church". Saying Hubbard doesn't control Scientology is like saying the Ayatollah Khomeini doesn't control Iran. He issued almost all recent directives on his plans for "church" expansion.
In fact, Hubbard is personally responsible (though not accountable) for the actions of the Scientology cult. His absolute control is demonstrated by the fact that he alone is exempt from the accountability which his own policy demands of "church" executives.
HCO PL 29 October 1971 states:
"...`responsibility'...means the state, quality or fact of being responsible, and responsible means legally or ethically accountable...Involving personal accountability or ability to act without guidance or superior authority...capable of making moral or rational decisions on one's own and therefore answerable for one's behavior...an executive DOES NOT WAIT FOR ORDERS TO ACT. He is the one who, guided by policy, acts on his own initiative to handle and supervise his area and others and does not himself require supervision."
Hubbard makes every executive in his cult study this. He holds every executive responsible and accountable for all the people, property, and actions in their area and under their authority. He is fanatical about affixing responsibility. In a Scientology organization if your name is on it or over it (from my 11 years experience) you are held totally responsible for it.
In telling contrast, Hubbard makes major mistakes but no one in the cult ever admits them or makes waves for the demigod. One of his latest and greatest discoveries was that people could go "clear" on Dianetics or in ways other than the "clearing course." He even discovered that people could be "naturally clear" without ever having been in Scientology. Now suddenly the number of "clears" in Scientology went from 6,000 to over 25,000 in just a few months. (Certainly it is mere coincidence that "clear" cult members can be sold a wide variety of lucrative services not available to pre-clears. Someone had a good sense of where the money is.)
In the years before Hubbard's new "discovery," these new "clears" had bought hundreds of thousands of dollars in auditing which now Hubbard says they didn't need. Worse yet, Hubbard now claims that the auditing they received was dangerous. Hubbard's top personally trained technical spokesman David Mayo wrote: "New Era Dianetics cannot be run on clears or above without serious consequences to the body." These people must now be "pushed up fast" and sold additional auditing through OT 3 because they are "at risk."
No refunds were given. There was no public admission by cult members that Hubbard really blew it. I guess they will just have to buy more auditing and keep their mouths shut or they will never be allowed to pay for and receive the only cure that exists. Then they'll really be in trouble.
But did Hubbard really blow it? Or did he (and David Mayo) just invent an extraordinarily lucrative way to double-dip rip off already-trapped cult members?
Hubbard is in control and he is making enormous profits. The stories that he no longer actively manages the cult, is not a member of the cult's board of directors, are his fraudulent efforts to shield himself legally and financially from any responsibility for orders he issued and procedures he designed. Every legal action brought against the cult should name L. Ron Hubbard and his wife Mary Sue as parties
But perhaps Hubbard is infallible after all. Look at the "Catch 22" policy he set up for anyone who complains that their auditing didn't work.
"To claim a pc lost time in auditing because of an error
in choosing processes or having to reflatten one, is highly fallacious.
Sometimes a pc throws us a curve with a rough case, bad between
session behavior, roughing up auditors... It is natural that goofs
occur on such cases. We are selling hours of auditing and what
that is is for us to judge. We are selling actual salvage from
Death itself. Rebate. How silly. The person was lucky we were
around at all and took an interest. We don't have to do anything
for anybody. Remember that. We can lose interest in certain people,
too you know."
- L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 23 May 1965
Yes, just because a cult member pays thousands and thousands of dollars to the cult for auditing does not mean he has any right to demand that he gets what he was told would occur!
Hubbard has more "Catch 22" systems for explaining why any failure is always the victim's fault. These rationalizations give loyal cult members justification for their participation, despite failure. This helps them "keep the faith" and continue their non-questioning of the founder's policies.
Hubbard's evasion of personal accountability finds classic expression in policy directive HCO PL 7 May 1969, "Policies on Sources of Trouble." This catchall list can rationalize almost any failure. Who among us could not be forced into one of these categories, if there were sufficient motive to do so?
"(a) Persons intimately connected with persons (such as marital or familial-ties) of known antagonism to mental or spiritual treatment or Scientology. In practice such persons, even when they approach Scientology in a friendly fashion, have such pressure continually brought to bear upon them by persons with undue influence over them that they make very poor gains in processing and their interest is solely devoted to proving the antagonistic element wrong.
They, by experience, produce a great deal of trouble in the long run as their own condition does not improve adequately under such stresses to effectively combat the antagonism. Their present time problem cannot be reached as it is continuous, and so long as it remains so, they should not be accepted for auditing by any church or auditor.
(b) Criminals with proven criminal records often continue to commit so many undetected harmful acts between sessions that they do not make adequate case gains and therefore should not be accepted for processing by churches or auditors.
(c) Persons who have ever threatened to sue or embarrass or attach or who have publicly attacked Scientology or been a party to an attack and all their immediate families should never be accepted for processing by a Central Organization or auditor. They have a history of only serving other ends than case gain and commonly again turn on the church or auditor. They have already barred themselves out by their own overts against Scientology and are thereafter too difficult to help, since they cannot openly accept help from those they have tried to injure.
(d) Responsible-for-condition cases have been traced back to other causes for their condition too often to be acceptable. By Responsible-for-condition cases is meant the person who insists a book or some auditor is "wholly responsible for the terrible condition I am in". Such cases demand unusual favors, free auditing, tremendous effort on the part of auditors. Review of these cases show that they were in the same or worse condition long before auditing, that they are using a planned campaign to obtain auditing for nothing, that they are not as bad off as they claim, and that their antagonism extends to anyone who seeks to help them, even their own families. Establish the rights of the matter and decide accordingly.
(e) Persons who are not being audited on their own determinism are a liability as they are forced into being processed by some other person and have no personal desire to become better. Quite on the contrary they usually want only to prove the person who wants them audited wrong, and so do not get better. Until a personally determined goal to be processed occurs, the person will not benefit.
(f) Persons who "want to be processed to see if Scientology works" as their only reason for being audited have never been known to make gains as they do not participate. News reporters fall into this category. They should not be audited.
(g) Persons who claim that "if you help such and such a case" (at great and your expense) because somebody is rich and influential or the neighbours would be electrified should be ignored. Processing is designed for bettering individuals, not progressing by stunts or giving cases undue importance...
(h) Persons who "have an open mind" but no personal hopes or desires for auditing of knowingness should be ignored, as they really don't have an open mind at all, but a lack of ability to decide about things and are seldom found to be very responsible and waste anyone's efforts "to convince them".
(i) Persons who do not believe anything or anyone can get better. They have a purpose for being audited entirely contrary to the auditor's and so in this conflict, do not benefit. When such persons are trained they use their training to degrade others. Thus they should not be accepted for training or auditing.
(j) Persons attempting to sit in judgment of Scientology in hearings or attempting to investigate Scientology should be given no undue importance. One should not seek to instruct or assist them in any way. This includes judges, boards, newspaper reporters, magazine writers, etc...
To summarize troublesome persons, the policy in general is to cut communication as the longer it is extended the more trouble they are. I know of no case where they types of persons listed above were handled by auditing or instruction. I know of many cases where they were handled by firm legal stands, by ignoring them until they change their minds, or just turning one's back..."
In other words, people who have their own viewpoints, are outspoken and in control of their minds are not allowed -- which leaves a very easily controlled group at Hubbard's disposal. It's nice to have "logical" reasons to explain away your failures, keep the crew happy, and the money flowing in.
In Hubbard's book "The Creation of Human Ability" he mentions a technique to exteriorize the spirit from the body, called "R2-45," which calls for using a 45 caliber pistol to end the life of the individual. "Church" spokesmen defending Hubbard's remark call it a joke. But this "joke" may have a different meaning to insiders who know firsthand the ruthlessness of cult fanatics. Might this discourage internal dissent?
Hubbard's cowardice (evasion of accountability) is another aspect of the bully (R2-45). Both of these things fit the image of a terrified person responding with viciousness. Hubbard's writings often describe himself, perhaps inadvertently, in the manner of a criminal secretly hoping to be caught. A particularly revealing example is found in Hubbard's policy describing attributes of the "anti-social personality":
"...to them all society is a large hostile generality....The antisocial personality habitually selects the wrong target.... Such a person has no trust to a point of terror....When such a personality goes insane the world is full of Martians or the FBI and each person met is really a Martian or FBI agent."
Church spokesmen claim that Hubbard is living in an undisclosed location under an assumed name with tight security precautions. He must be worried. In the past, Hubbard claims to have been the target of mysterious attacks (by Martians?), three of which occurred while he slept. One allegedly occurred in February 1951 in his apartment on North Rossmore Street in LA.
"About two or three o'clock in the morning the apartment was entered. I was knocked out, had a needle thrust into my heart to give it a jet of air to produce a coronary thrombosis and I was given an electric shock with a 110 volt current. This is all very blurred to me. I had no witnesses."
Hubbard once offered his services (by mail, never acknowledged) to President Kennedy to use Dianetics on astronauts in the space agency. Was Hubbard afraid President Kennedy would harm him while talking with him? From his January 1963 letter to a government agency:
"However, if President Kennedy did grant me an audience
to discuss this matter...I
would have to have some guarantee of safety of person."
"The reactions of individuals or groups to criticism varies
from general acceptance or amused tolerance at one end of the
scale to a sense of outrage and vindictive counterattack on the
other....Perhaps unfortunately, especially for its adherents,
Scientology falls at the hypersensitive end of the scale.... Judging
from the documents this would seem to have its origin in a personality
trait of Hubbard whose attitude to critics is one of extreme hostility....It
could be said that anyone whose attitude is such as Mr. Hubbard
displays in his writings cannot be too surprised if the world
treats him with suspicion rather than affection."
- Sir John Foster, author of a British inquiry into Scientology
Sir John knew only a tiny fraction of what is in this document
and none of what has been discovered about the cult in recent
raids by the F.B.I. I think his comment is benevolent in light
of the new discoveries about Hubbard and his cult.
HUBBARD AND HIS STAFF
In one of his policy directives, Hubbard talks about what motivates
people. He refers to a motivation scale from the book, "A
Spy and His Masters": duty,
personal conviction,
personal gain,
money.
For two years I experienced Hubbard use of these ideas as a staff member at "Celebrity Center" in Los Angeles. Great efforts were made to recruit new staff to work 60-70 hour weeks for $15/wk plus room and board. The motivation had to be something besides money, but money was usually the first and easiest-to-understand approach. New recruits would save money by getting $300/hr Scientology services free. I know of cult members who received more than $100,000 worth of these untaxed labor exchanges. (The I.R.S. should check into this, because staff receive invoiced services in exchange for labor. Staff are contractually liable for the invoiced value of the services. Yet the cult pays no withholding or social security.)
We tried hard to convice recruits it was their spiritual duty to join staff and help Scientology save a world that could go at any moment. Hubbard makes full use of the old corporate ploy, explained in "A Spy and His Masters": "give them status and a title instead of money." The cult heaps titles and the highest reverence upon members who sign their souls away for a billion years on Hubbard's cheap labor farm. Cult literature promotes the status and romantic attraction of being one of the chosen few. "Theirs are the feats that legends are made of" is a favorite promotional slogan of the Guardian's Office. "Many are called, few are chosen" is another favorite. A recruiting promotion called "Creating a Safe and Sane Planet" boasts:
"We are nevertheless in the upper 1/10 of the upper 1/10 in intelligence...We are not idly fighting an enemy just to have a fight. We are actually fighting the evil basic point of the society which was destroying it... In all the broad universe there is no other hope for man than ourselves."
Potential recruits and old staff members are constantly bombarded with this egocentric fanaticism.
While Hubbard lived like a king with personal servants, custom clothes, and approximately 100 cameras (to name but a few of his luxuries), the average staff member lived with constant harassment and grossly substandard, over-crowded housing, and poor food. In Celebrity Center's old housing we often had trouble with building inspectors about housing violations.
Frequent purges are a fact of staff life. I remember one purge to get rid of anyone who had taken LSD. Another time it was anyone who had had electric shock or psychotherapy. There were missions by higher cult centers to purge the SP's from staff and "put a head on a pike" as an example. It seemed like there was always a witch hunt for someone. One time it was for people with supposed "evil intentions" as manifested by a specific reaction on the "E-Meter" called a "Rock Slam." If you were found to be a "witch," you might be sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) to get rehabilitated and turned into a decent being (i.e., slave labor). There was a constant push to work harder, faster, and get the money now because the world was crumbling and only "we" could save it by fast work.
If you became disillusioned with harassment, low pay, and poor food and housing, and wanted to leave, you would be targetted for the "big scare" and the "big surprise." The big scare is that if you violate your billion-year contract you will be declared an SP, in treason to the cult, and an "enemy." This means you will be barred from the cult's upper levels which are promoted as your only chance in all eternity for spiritual freedom. The big surprise is that you must now pay cash for all those "free" services you signed binding invoices for.
The intimidation and pressure are enormous. Faced with loss of spiritual freedom for all eternity plus demands for huge amounts of money they have no way of earning, most people just shut up and go back to work. If you do manage to leave the cult, they are damn serious about collecting the money you owe them after working "free" for them for years. I know of one couple so intimidated they are struggling to find a way to pay off over $100,000 in "free" services they received as staff members.
Cult PR brags about the highly trained and responsible staff who deliver 100% standard LRH tech in Scientology organizations. What I saw, again and again, was the "highly trained experts" of today (who may have been put on post yesterday to sink or swim) become tomorrow's SP's, despised, demoted and transfered. Constant purges maintain the undertainty and fear which motivate and control staff. If some combination of people manage to bring in money, they will survive longer than most -- but then the wheel will turn again. The turnover of personnel in Scientology organizations is unbelievable. It's hard to find the same "highly trained experts" on the same post from one day to the next. Because of the tremendous turnover, the cult needs a constant flow of idealistic new faces to man its "free" labor ranks.
Any stability of position, any respect (except for Hubbard and his wife), are illusions in the roller coaster of staff life. Hubbard has it worked out nicely. He has power, control, and use of the cult's assets. Staff members have moral self-righteousness, status, admiration, and lots of titles.
What is the great work for which staff members endure such conditions?
I remember one time Hubbard, in one of his egocentric pipe dreams,
decided to conquer the music industry and teach the world about
real music. He formed a "research project" involving
more than fifty staff members who, for months, did nothing but
play music under Hubbard's incompetent direction. Finally they
went to a studio and put together an album. The cult put together
a massive advertising and distribution campaign, involving yet
more personnel, for this culmination of LRH's "researches"
into the subject of music. The album, titled "The Power of
Source," came out and was a highly conspicious flop. Even
many cult members couldn't stand it, but no one dared openly criticize
it. Did Hubbard pay for his expensive play-acting? No, the cult
did. I don't know how many more instances may be found of cult
money spent for Hubbard's nonsensical "research."
[ Similar boondoggles are known concerning Hubbard's "careers"
as "photographer" and as "filmmaker," both
of which involved large amounts of cult money and staff labor.
Perhaps most costly of all were Hubbard's "James Bond / cloak-and-dagger"
delusions. -Ed ]
In another policy directive, Hubbard observes that one doesn't have to own something to control it. One need only have use of it. That's nothing new: just set up a trust or corporation which you dominate and spend its money according to your own desires.
Hubbard's perks and the "research expense accounts" which he takes from the cult must be enormous. These are why staff members must work long hours for little or no pay. When the money starts to run low, Hubbars's real genius lies in finding new ways to extort yet more money from the same group of captive minds. The pressures and abuse already described eventually drive people away. Who but Hubbard could get those same people to come back and bleed some more, and be grateful to be allowed to be victimized again? From policy directive LRH ED 307 Int. "The Amnesty":
"Some years ago all ethics handlings were turned over to orgs for their own determinism. Approval of such handling was no longer required of an International Justice Chief. This did not work out. Heavy and often unjust actions were taken locally which disrupted orgs. To handle this LRH 305 R and 305-1 were issued. These granted an amnesty to anyone who was ever in an org or in Scientology. There has been a huge response from all over the world on this and ex-staff and many public have gotten back on lines."
Old staff members who had left and broken their "contracts"
were called and told that if they come back to work on staff immediately
they will not be charged for the "free" services they
had to pay for after leaving the cult. Hubbard manages to avoid
accountability even here. The "errors" he admits to
were those of (lower-level) "orgs," not Hubbard's centralized
top management ("International Justice Chief"). Once
again the fault lies with the victim, not with Hubbard.
Lose if you stay, lose if you go, lose if you leave and then come
back.
THE central fact of staff life is threat. That is how staff are controlled and kept from questioining Hubbard's directives. I have already mentioned purges and the musical chairs of removals from post. It goes far beyond that. It is necessary for Hubbard's control of staff that the outside world be a threat.
Have you ever heard of a religion that has an evacuation plan in case it is attacked by the government? This cult does. While I was a staff member I overheard a high Celebrity Center executive's conversation about the evacuation plan that all Sea Org Commanding Officers are briefed on when they take command. This plan calls for the transport to a safe unknown location, or the destruction, of all advanced course materials and incriminating Guardian's Office files, all within 24 hours of receipt of warning of imminent attack from the cult's "early warning unit." Funds were to be transfered out of the country to foreign banks. Key personnel in the LA area were to board the Excalibur (an old Navy ship the cult bought, stationed in San Pedro, California) and temporarily disappear to a cult owned ranch near Rosarito, Mexico. This was a self-contained survival unit with wells, generators, and necessary supplies. One or two cult members were stationed there to maintain it in case of need.
I understand that every major cult center handling "sensitive" material has an evacuate-or-destroy plan. Any effort to subpoena of any of the cult's confidential or sensitive materials would have to take these plans into account. The cult may even have prepared a complete set of false or altered documents to submit to a court in the event of subpoena. I know with certainty that this upper level data and documentation is so sensitive, embarassing and incriminating to the cult that they will do anything to protect its secrecy.
Nothing bad may happen as the cult prepares for fanatical response to imaginary threat created by Hubbard to keep staff in line. But when the cult's criminal activity eventually makes the threat real, the fanatical response plans will still be in place. That is where we get the potential for a new Jonestown.
Remember that Hubbard's words and "command intention" are what cult leaders emulate and follow. This is from HCO PL 12 February 1967:
"When you move off a point of power, pay all your obligations on the nail, empower all your friends completely and move off with your pockets full of artillery, potential blackmail on every erstwhile rival...the addresses of experienced assassins ...unlimited funds in Bulgravia and bribe the police...
"So to live at all in the shadow or employ of a power you must yourself gather and USE enough power to hold your own - without just nattering to the power to "kill Pete", in straightforward or more suppressive veiled ways to him as these wreck the power that supports yours. He doesn't have to know all the bad news and if he's a power really he won't ask all the time, "What are all those dead bodies doing at the door? And if you are clever, you never let it be thought HE killed them - that weakens you and also hurts the power source. "Well, boss, about all those dead bodies, nobody at all will suppose you did lt. She over there, those pink legs sticking out, didn't like me." "Well," he'll say if he really is a power, "why are you bothering me with it if it's done and you did it. Where's my blue ink?" Or "Sklpper, three shore patrolmen will be along soon with your cook, Dober, and they'll want to tell you he beat up Simson." "Who's Simson?" "He's a clerk in the enemy office downtown." Good, when they've done it, take Dober down to the dispensary for any treatment he needs. Oh yes, Raise his pay. Or `Sir, could I have the power to sign divisional orders?' `Sure.'
..."And lastly and most important, for we all aren't on the stage with our names in lights, always push power in the direction of anyone on whose power you depend. It may be more money for the power, or more ease, or a snarling defense of the power to a critic, or even the dull thud of one of his enemies in the dark, or the glorious blaze of the whole enemy camp as a birthday surprise" - L. Ron Hubbard.
HUBBARD, THE CULT & THE US GOVERNMENT
"The reactive mind - unconscious mind - whatever you
care to call it - suppresses all decent impulses and enforces
the bad ones. Therefore a democracy is collective think of reactive
banks. Popular opinion is bank opinion. Any human group is likely
to elect only those who will kill them. That's concluded from
actual 1950 experiments."
- L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 13 February 1965.
These all-encompassing generalities of Mr. Hubbard's seem to have overlooked 200 years of democracy in the United States, the greatest nation on Earth. We are still around -- but the dictators who fought with our group-elected officials aren't.
"And I don't see that popular measures self-abnegation
and democracy have done anything for man but push him further
into the mud."
- L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 7 February 1965
Hubbard's "patriotic motivation" caused him to write President Kennedy on January 5, 1963, asking for an interview to discuss helping America in the space race, with his Dianetic techniques, and to talk about the persecution of his sect.
In 1955 the cult had circulated an alleged "Russian textbook" on psycho-politics and brainwashing as a "public service." An F.B.I. internal memo said it was of "doubtful authenticity" and "apparently a thinly veiled attack upon the mental health programs along the line that such programs are part of the worldwide communist conspiracy."
This affidavit elsewhere discusses Scientology's infiltration of and criminal activities against government agencies, for which 11 top cult officials were convicted and jailed. Cult plans discovered by the F.B.I. called for infiltration of more than 130 agencies.
Government, to Hubbard, is just something else to be used, when it can be used, or gotten out of his way if it can not be used. Ideally it would be an easy road to power for the cult. (The absolute selfish egocentrism of Hubbard and those who emulate him is difficult to comprehend.) From the best of my observations, the cult feels that a theocracy or monarchy with its leader, Hubbard, or a trusted cult member, as head of government would be the ideal form of government. This would be a a first step toward reawakened Sea Org members from the old Galactic Confederation reclaiming their birthright in a new galactic government with earth as the first planet. The petty concerns of this little government on this planet at this time are of no significance. Certainly their laws are not.
I am going to tell a bizarre story which illustrates both the absurdity and the true danger of this cult. The premise of the story is that these "galactic warriors" actually believe that Hubbard's mumbo-jumbo means something and has real power (after all, it has become the central focus of their lives, so it had better mean something!). The point is that these people-without-conscience are completely willing to use what they consider to be an "ultimate weapon" against the people and governments of earth. The absurdity should not blind us to the intent. They have other weapons too, and a proven willingness to engage in criminal activity.
The F.B.I.'s raid on the cult's Los Angeles headquarters uncovered documentation of a bomb threat to be sent to Henry Kissinger, for which cult critic Paulette Cooper was to be framed. Why Kissinger? It is widely known in the cult that Kissinger is a "suppressive person" and anti-cult. The F.B.I. saw the frame-up of Cooper but they could not see that Kissinger himself was also a target. In its wording of the phony bomb threat sent to Kissinger, the Scientology operatives used "trigger words" and phrases from what it believes to be Hubbard's "discoveries" in mind control. Only someone such as myself, who has done the secret OT-3 Level AND has read the bomb threats, would be able to put this data together.
One of the ways Hubbard gets cult members to take his supposed "discoveries" seriously is by making them out to be dangerous. Then, when group influence and the various coercive techniques discussed in this affidavit create a believer, the result can be attributed to the power of Hubbard's "discoveries." On OT-3 Hubbard warns that these processes can cause death, illness, or massive personality changes because of the trigger or "restimulation" effect on the mind. Cult members believe it -- but still chose to send parts of those materials, as a weapon, to a key government official whose sanity and stability could affect world peace or war.
Quite by accident I found out about another confidential project, this one intended to turn the U.S. people against the government through a movie that would use Hubbard's mental trigger "discoveries." Nan Hurst, a long time cult member, was working on this project and confided to me that Hubbard had written a special script called "Revolt in the Stars" using the secret OT-3 materials. A project was organized to get it made into a movie and widely distributed. The cult's special project is shopping for money for the script in L.A. and has raised over one million dollars. The project is headed by Myron and Alice Robinson of the Brilliant Film Co., 6671 Sunset Blvd. #1581, Hollywood, CA.
Nan Hurst joyfully told me about the script and how it would make the people "trigger" and become irrationally hostile against the government. When the government fell, people would remember that Scientology had exposed the government's corruption and abuse of the people and they'd assume the cult was their ally. Hubbard's script, using the OT-3 data, shows the F.B.I. and government hiding data from the public and being very evil. From Nan Hurst's description, it is a black propaganda generality against the government which gets its force from the cult's mind control secrets. In HCO PL 11 May 1971, Hubbard states his purpose for Black PR:
"Exploding it to the public ideally is an effort to turn the public into a vigilante committee."
Judge Richey who tried the cult case in Washington DC, compared the offenses by the cult members to "those of many of the defendants in the Watergate case." He said he decided to send them to jail to deter others from trying to "destroy the very foundation of the government." From all my experience, I believe that is exactly what the cult believes it must do to survive.
Cult members have assimilated themselves into all walks and levels
of life. The Governor of Hawaii was or is a cult member. One of
the top cabinet members in the Mexican Government is a cult member.
A recent cult publication shows celebrity cult members Chick Corea
and Stanley Clark meeting with President Carter at the White House.
Isn't it time that this cult was fully investigated, not just
the tip of the iceberg operation that the FBI saw? After 11 years
experiencing cult "justice" and administration, I would
not want to live in a world controlled by Hubbard's intergalactic
storm troopers.
THE CULT AND PROPAGANDA
I will show that founder L. Ron Hubbard promotes hate to his cult members, to create a polarity and dehumanization which will allow members to commit any illegal, uncivilized, and inhumane act deemed expedient by the cult. How he does this is described in his own policy directives. In HCO PL 5 October 1971:
"Propaganda by Redefinition of Words":
"A long term propaganda technique used by socialists (Communists and Nazis alike} is of interest to PR practitioners. I know of no place it is mentioned in PR literature. But the data had verbal circulation in intelligence circles and is in constant current use. The trick is -- WORDS ARE REDEFINED TO MEAN SOMETHING ELSE TO THE ADVANTAGE OF THE PROPAGANDIST. Many instances of planned and campaigned in order to obtain a public opinion advantage for the group doing the propaganda. Given enough repetition of the redefinition public opinion can be altered by altering the meaning of a word. The technique is good or bad depending on the ultimate objective of the propagandist. "Psychiatry" and "psychiatrist" are easily redefined to mean "an anti-social enemy of the people". This takes the kill crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions... The redefinition of words is done be associating different emotions and symbols with the word than were intended... Scientologist are redefining "doctor", "Psychiatry" and "psychology" to mean "undesirable antisocial elements"... The way to redefine a word is to get the new definition repeated as often as possible. Thus it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards. This, so far as words are concerned, is the public opinion battle for belief in your definitions, and not those of the opposition. A consistent, repeated effort is the key to any success with this technique of propaganda. One must know how to do it." -- L. Ron Hubbard.
Here is an example of Hubbard using the same techniques he ascribes to the Communist and Nazis. In Hubbard's own words, from HCOB 24 April 1969:
"Lately public opinion has turned heavily against the suppressive groups and the public discovery that illegal seizure, torture and murder was hidden activity of political psychiatric groups..."
He takes an emotional generality and associates illegal killing, torture and seizure with psychiatry. Very good. Hubbard gets an "A" in "Propaganda by Redefinition of Words 101."
Many of Hubbard other writings do their best to associate the A.M.A. and psychiatry with crime, Nazi concentration camps, the Communists -- almost anything which is despised. Hubbard actively promotes fanatical hate in his cult members toward whatever he views as an enemy.
Understanding the tremendous promotion of hate and despisement, it becomes easier to understand the attitudes and actions of cult members toward Hubbard's enemies. They are fired up by Hubbard's own words. But why would Hubbard use Black propaganda? I have listed many reasons before, but here is another. In HCO PL 11 May 1971, talking about Black PR, Hubbard states:
"Exploding it to the public ideally is an effort to make the public a vigilante committee."
Hubbard's sensationalized yellow journalism Black propaganda statements attempt to turn cult members (and hopefully society) into vigilantes. After being inside the "church" for 11 years, I have seen and heard cult member attitudes of what should be done or what enemies of the cult deserve - - and it's not very pleasant.
Hubbard uses propaganda to attack his enemies and to build a protective religious image for the cult. The "church's" religious front is its most important defense and its most carefully and completely detailed propaganda package. If the "church" were to lose its religious status it would have to pay taxes like any other business, and we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in profits, and maybe billions in the future, that they would have to pay taxes on. No amount of money, personnel, or materials are spared in this attempt to create an image of the "church" as a religion.
Low-level (Level 1) cult members totally and sincerely believe they are in a bona-fide religion. After all, it has crosses, ministers, clerical garb, standard religious ceremonies, regular church services, ministerial training, and everything any normal church in rural America would have. A great many policies and directives have been issued to make it look in appearances like a real religion.
The cult has become a master of public relations propaganda. They carefully survey the general public to find out what they like and dislike and what a religion should look like. Then they attack what the public dislikes and support what the public likes -- as long as it doesn't interfere with their own hidden agenda.
Internally the cult warns about people who speak in generalities and in bad or critical news. Hubbard says this is one of the "characteristics of an anti-social personality." Yet if you examine the propaganda against their critics, you will find that most of their statements are generalities -- an admission in their own private terms that Scientology is an "anti-social" group.
Internally the cult allows no public protests or demonstrations against itself. It doesn't allow members to seek redress in the U.S. or foreign court systems. It requires that they resolve all wrongs and injustices internally using their own administration policies. Further, policy directives show that the cult orders members to use its internal administrative procedures on the outside world, when in conflict with the outside world
Not once, in my 11 years as a cult member, did I see or hear of any reports filed with an adversary's internal ethics divisions to correct irregularities. (Their adversaries include the A.M.A., A.P.A., and the World Federation of Mental Health). If the cult's intentions really were to correct specific wrong-doings and wrong-doers, they would deal in specifics, and use administrative remedies and the legal system to correct the wrongs in society. But in my experience, all I ever saw was generalities attacking whole groups with the propaganda techniques mentioned earlier.
The group or organization being attacked was generalized and sensationalized into an ogre when it might have been only a few or even a specific individual member of the group who was the alleged wrong-doer. My feeling and observation is that the sole intention and purpose for their attacks on their critics is to destroy reputations and eliminate the competition -- rather than any honest effort to correct wrongs in a logical, legal, and systematic manner.
It is rare that those groups and individuals who were attacked
have sued for libel or malicious damage. Probably they underestimate
the threat and do not wish to publicly engage in mudslinging.
But if the data in this report becomes more widely understood,
I would expect to see increased efforts to use legal means to
enforce respect for human rights, dignity, law, and the Constitution
in the cult's actions and policies.
The "church" set up reform groups shortly after Hubbard, in 1966, wrote,
"Churches are looked upon as reform groups. Therefore we must act like a reform group."
Scientology and Dianetics are held in such suspect repute that the press and public seldom believes the cult's propaganda releases. Indoctrinated members can be made to believe the propaganda, but in public the cult must use front groups to defend it, speak for it, and attack its enemies. Internal confidential church documents seized by the F.B.I. show that social reform activities were designed primarily to attack church critics publicly from the safe and respectable position of a humane social reform group. An example of Hubbard's thinking on this matter is policy directive HCO PL 12 January 1973 "The Safe Point":
"...Rule l...Get in a safe place and speak up. It is necessary of course to have a safe place to get into, from which one can in safely speak up. One cannot defend himself in a point that has no defenses...Thus the Safe Point takes consideration over Active Defense...a special unit must be set up and run at full steam to make a safe point and gain viable PR Area Control over all publics in the area...The PR Area Control action in a new area can go so far as to create in the area of whole past and future track for the activity being established. It can make it sound old-fashioned, stable, reliable, expert, productive..."
The Scientology-front social reform groups fulfill Hubbard's directives to a "T." Very few people will attack a social reform group, so Hubbard now has his "Safe Point" from which these groups can get his propaganda messages across. The social reform groups do perform social good. If they didn't, they would be useless to Hubbard and easily seen through. In my 11 years in the organization I have noted these common denominators to all the good works or public investigations and exposes these front groups perform.
1) The good works are done to make Scientology or Hubbard personally seem "old-established, stable, reliable, expert, and productive."
2) These works lend humanitarian or religious credibility to the cult and its founder and conceal the real source of cult propaganda.
3) Exposes by the social reform groups are directed at groups, organizations or individuals that are critical, threatening, or hostile to Hubbard or the cult.
4) Programs and orders for front group activities come from the cult's Guardian's Office section. The top executive posts in the reform groups are guided by paid "church" intelligence staff. They try very hard to conceal these connections.
No doubt as "Safe Point" front groups are made known for what they are, new ones will be set up by the cult to fulfill the vitally needed "Safe Point" function.
If the I.R.S. were to dig through the payroll records of these
front groups, they might find the church violating its
tax-free status by engaging in political activities. After 11
years inside, my opinion is that Scientology's religious image
is a carefully created image and illusion to protect the cult's
tax-free profits.
THE CULT AND ITS USE OF CELEBRITIES & OPINION LEADERS
John Travolta (actor), Karen Black (actress), Priscilla
Presley (actress, Elvis' wife),
Chick Corea (musician), John Brodie (sportscaster
and former SF 49er quarterback),
Judy North (of "The Waltons"), Melanie
(singer), Geoffery Lewis (actor),
Milton Kosethelos (director), Floyd Mutrux (director),
Manu Tupo (actor),
John Ryan (producer), Cathy Lee Crosby (actress),
Lee Purcell (actress),
Chic Vinera (actor), Bill Church (Texas owner of
Church's Chicken fast food restaurants),
Howard Wilkins (key builder of the Pizza Hut chain),
Willie B. Wilson (oil magnate from Midland Texas).
All of the above celebrities or business opinion leaders have allowed their names to be used in endorsements for the Scientology cult. The cult's promotions, using these well-known names, seek to obtain public acceptance since such normal, successful, and popular people are known to be members.
The use and development of celebrity membership, for its public relations and promotional value, is a very high priority to Scientology -- so much so that they have set up a special center in Hollywood where the sole purpose is to recruit and indoctrinate celebrities. At this center every effort, pressure, and sales tactic is brought to bear on existing celebrity membership to recruit new celebrities into the cult. Members are heavily indoctrinated about their "duty" and "responsibility" to recruit other celebrities.
A few celebrities have caught on to the cult's exploitation of them to legitimize unethical or criminal activity, and have quietly disappeared from cult activity, wanting no harassment or future use of their names. In my work at Celebrity Center I observed that Ernie Lehman (producer of "The Sound of Music") was particularly disenchanted with the cult's promotions and activities using his name. Mr. Lehman had gone, at that time, almost all the way to the top of the cult's secret rites and processes. Another celebrity who won't have anything to do with the cult after experiences on the secret OT-3 rites, in spite of all the efforts of her brother who is a high cult official, is Peggy Lipton of "Mod Squad" fame.
I believe that celebrities are used to gather information, as covert agents, on cult allies and enemies in their respective industries. Only the most trusted and loyal celebrities and opinion leaders are allowed this "privilege" by the inner circle. One such "insider" opinion leader is Ken Gerbino, head of the Beverly Hills investment firm, Gerbino and Associates. He proudly told me how he had gathered financial information on individuals, from his sources, that the Guardian's Office could not obtain. Gerbino and Associates run the "American Economic Council," frequently used by the cult as a front and forum for its propaganda, through "guest speakers" at their financial seminars in Beverly Hills and other U.S. cities. Some of the world's top financial opinion leaders attend and speak, unknowingly, at these cult member directed conferences. When I was at Celebrity Center, Gerbino was boasting about the tremendous financial information access he has due to his "American Economic Council."
The cult uses the same methods to control, manipulate, and sell its celebrities that it uses on any other member. Only further investigation will determine to what extent celebrities have been used by the cult as information gathering agents and what laws may have been violated.
In HCO PL 12 January 1973, Hubbard states:
"The most important action to undertake when going about making a Safe Point is to carefully and painstakingly find out who exactly are the Top Dogs in the area in financial and political circles and their associates and their connections and to what each one is hostile."
A cult document seized by the F.B.I. indicates that I.R.S. intelligence files were illegally obtained on former California Governor Edmund G. Brown, present California Governor Brown, LA Mayor Bradley, Singer Frank Sinatra, and actor John Wayne. Only further investigation will tell the whole story.
Fom my experience, I believe that few celebrities know to what degree they are being used by the cult or even where some of their signed success testimonials are going. Once I was driving through Greeley, Colorado, past the local cult center, and saw a six-foot picture of Travolta extolling the virtues of the cult. I wondered if he had authorized the poster, or even knew of it.
SELLING THE CULT
From my years inside the cult, as a staff member and salesman, I hope to explain and clarify some of the pressures, ideas, and tactics used to sell the cult's services and to control and motivate members in ways advantageous to the cult.
The clout of getting money from cult members, new and old, comes from a combination of sales techniques: "Mystery" as a come-on,. "Hope," and "Fear." As a salesman you are taught to use these techniques either directly or tacitly to get the cash as soon as possible from the prospect.
"Come on" is defined by Hubbard as follows.
"If we tell him there is something to know and don't tell him what it is we will zip people into Div. 6 [a cult division] and on into the Org [short for Organization]... Never just give data. And one can keep on doing this to a person - shuttle them along using mystery... one service ending in some mystery that only the next service will solve... Reach gets blunted or terminated once a person gets his question answered; the solution to his problem."
In my years as a cult member I saw members led along, always hoping that the mystery behind the next curtain would solve their problems. Of course it never did, in any lasting way, because that would blunt sales (the come-on) and income. Why do people go on spending everything they have, like lemmings on their way to the sea? The answer lies in a tremendous combination of pressures placed on the cult member. Fear and hope are totally indoctrinated into the cult member. He hopes that he will receive the miraculous and ridiculous claims made directly, indirectly, and by rumor. He is afraid of peer pressure if he does not proceed along the prescribed program. He is intimidated and afraid of being accused of being a "dilettante" (i.e., not really serious as a Scientologist). He is afraid that if he doesn't do it now, before the world ends or collapses, he may never get the chance. He is afraid that if he doesn't claim he received gains, and write a success testimonial, he will be shunned and labeled an "anti-social personality."
A cult member is carefully and completely indoctrinated as to how he should feel and what gains he should have from each cult procedure. He is indoctrinated into this system by examples. He sees others write success testimonials and be publicly applauded and honored after finishing an action. He learns that this is what is supposed to happen -- unless something is drastically wrong with him. How many people could stand up to that kid of pressure, before a group of applauding people, and say, "Hey, it really wasn't so good..."? Before you ever go into an auditing session you believe, because of example, reinforcement, and the power of hoping, that you will attain what the cult has implied or suggested. The auditor nudges you along into the subjective euphoria that you already expect, so you can believe that you've done it, that you've made it. But it is only a temporary subjective induced euphoria, and it fades. Then you're sold the next mystery and the next solution.
Hubbard should be awarded "salesman of the year" for his brilliant design of manipulative techniques. I've seen people sell their homes, stocks, inheritances, and everything they own, chasing their hopes for a fleeting subjective euphoria. I have never seen a greater preying on the hopes and fears of others.
Cult salesmen play on many kinds of fears to get members to write the check.
1. Fear of losing one's health. (Dianetics is sold, on no evidence but group influence, as the cure for everything from baldness to cancer -- but without ever promising a medical result.)
2. Fear of being trapped spiritually. (This is a fear created by Scientology indoctrination so that Scientology can be sold, on no evidence but group influence, as the only answer.)
3. Fear that if one don't actively support the "church" there is no hope for the world. (The cult asserts, on no evidence but group influence, that its actions have some kind of unique effect on the world.)
4. Fear of being labeled "SP" or anti-social personality or enemy, thus losing one's Scientology friends and being declared "Fair Game." (a group-manufactured fear)
5. Fear of dying -- yes, dying. On the confidential levels you are told that you or others could be harmed or die if you tell anyone about their secret data, and that you will die of pneumonia and no sleep if you use the secret data incorrectly. (a group-manufactured fear)
6. Fear of losing your soul for all eternity, for that is the penalty if the cult doesn't let you receive its services because you have not followed its policies. (a group-manufactured fear)
Fear is pervasive and consciously created by Hubbard. He does his best to convince cult members that the worst thing in the world they could do is anything which would harm Scientology.
From HCO PL 31 December 1959:
"I assure you, and with some sorrow people have not often recovered from overts ["overts" are wrong or destructive acts] against Scientology, its organizations and related persons. They don't recover because they know in their hearts even while they lie that they are wronging people who have done and are doing enormous amounts of good in the world... Literally it kills them and if you don't believe it I can show you the long death list. Just this year I had an electrician who robbed HCO ["HCO" is a cult division] of money with false bills and bad workmanship. One day he woke up to the fact... within a few weeks he contracted TB... Nobody took off the overts... when he left, and it actually killing him... I once told a bill collector what and who we were and he had wronged a good person and a half hour later he threw a hundred grains of veronal down his throat and was lugged off to the hospital a suicide."
Cult members read, study, agree, believe, and follow Hubbard's words. Hubbard knows that if you can get someone to agree deeply enough to something, then he can, in the future, be mentally subject to decisions made in the past. The pervasive agreement that Scientology requires works like a kind of voodoo that keeps a very tight lid on cult defectors whose habitual fear makes them silent and inactive. The programming says that harming Scientology is the worst thing in the world and a monumental evil. Many fears, including fear of doing "the greatest evil," allow Hubbard to manipulate cult members to the point of self-endangerment. Many people will come forward and speak out once the fear and intimidation this cult wields on its members is exposed and handled by legal means.
Another method Hubbard uses to control and manipulate his cult members is to isolate them from outside influences hostile to Scientology. If a cult member has an anti-Scientology family or friends, he will gradually see less and less of them and do whatever is necessary to maintain an innocuous "front" of good relations. A new cult member soon finds that he has switched friends, mostly to other cult members who see things Hubbard's way. Negative news releases are kept away from cult staff members and are taboo in conversation or discussions. Cult members are buried in a continuous stream of propaganda from the "church" on how well the "church" is liked, how well it's doing, how bad its enemies are, and how fast the cult is growing. When I was a staff member my mail and other members' mail was opened, read, and then given to us, to "protect us" from critical remarks made by parties hostile to Scientology.
In my training as a cult salesman, one of Hubbard's directives told us to never ask the public to decide anything, because they are not up to an awareness level where they can perceive and evaluate. We were instructed to tell them what to do, where to go and when to be there. Tell them, but never ask them to evaluate and decide. That's also how staff members are treated by the controlling inner circle. That's the spirit of life in Scientology groups. "Communication" comes to mean the same thing as "compliance." If someone fails to comply with an order then it must be that the communication failed. You must use "TR-3" and impinge! Dialog ceases to exist.
Another fear and mystery method used by Hubbard is the greatest demon, monster, devil, and boogie man ever invented. Of course since Hubbard "discovered" it, he is the only one with a cure for it. He sells the fear and mystery of a special kind of mind called the "reactive mind" that everyone supposedly has. It controls a person unknowingly (more mystery) and is the illogical source of all man's problems. Level 1 materials don't say where this mind comes from, but tens of thousands of dollars later in the cult's secret rites you get the surprise of your life when Hubbard "levels with you" about this "demon." Cult members learn to believe in the reactive mind from the very beginning. They fear they will die from the effects of the reactive mind.
Hubbard has several "broad public release" policy directives that give lip service to the idea of individual evaluation and judgment. But from my experience and observations, the techniques used by the cult do anything but encourage evaluation through documentation and proof. They use a technique in their indoctrination that is an almost hypnotic process of agreement. Many sales schools teach this technique. It has been known to salesmen for years that you must win the confidence of the sales prospect so he will believe you. The technique they use (and I was also trained on this in my "church") is to talk to the prospect about very simple basic things that any logical, social, person could agree on. "It's a nice sunny day, Mr. Jones." "You want the most for your money, right, Mr. Jones?" You make many simple true statements that get the prospect agreeing with you and saying "Yes I believe" or "Yes I agree it's true." To reinforce agreement, the salesman nods his head in a positive manner. After doing this for a while, the prospect becomess locked into nodding his head and agreeing and believing the salesman on a low unconscious level.
The cult uses this same tactic to indoctrinate new members in what I call "Level 1," to make them later into unquestioning, unthinking cult members. It works like this. New members are buried in a sea of very broad, general, simple religious, semi-religious, scientific, and philosophic truisms that are easy to agree with. At this level (Level 1) no one inside or outside the cult would find much to disagree with, and the cult appears plausibly religious, logical, and humanitarian in nature. You might call Level 1 the broad basis of general agreement that you could find in the general dogma of any great religion or past philosophy. The new member sees and experiences workable truth that aids his life. He experiments and tests it and finds the general platitudes true. He sees and experiences tremendous agreement, and the status, honor, and recognition given to cult members who give testimonials of how true and workable Scientology is. Through constant repetition, in the most subtle ways, he gradually throws away doubts and criticism. At Level 1 (indoctrination) the cult does its absolute best to insulate new members from controversy or the data of Levels 2 and 3.
After some time on Level 1, the new member begins accepting Hubbard's remarks by habit, based on the success and truth of earlier data he tried and found acceptable. He begins to accept Hubbard's statements without thought or testing. He becomes locked into a "reflex" process that is held in place by his agreement with the Level 1 indoctrination. As this goes on he becomes more embedded in the group and less likely to disagree with it. This learned "belonging" to the group then sustains him through the outrageousness of Level 2 and Level 3 data.
A danger exists here which I saw in my cult friends and in myself. As an unquestioning, agreeing, believing cult member I could be presented with almost any data or idea and my "logic" now was to accept it, because Level 1 had been OK, and I had by now accepted that Hubbard was the greatest discoverer, philosopher, and religious leader since Buddha, Christ, etc. The attitude promoted inside the cult is that if it has Hubbard's name on it, it's true.
This data on the indoctrination process in the making of a believer should be of help to those who have to deal with the cult's fanaticism.
Hubbard and Hubbard's cult are masters of selling on the disclaimer. The hopes of cult members are fired up by wild outrageous subjective success stories and testimonials of improved health and wild supernatural abilities. The cult promotes, prints, and distributes these testimonials in its publications. They use these testimonials to implant and fuel hopes for wild personal gains, to suggest that "previous customers got these results -- you can too." This cruel technique, coupled with the disclaimer of any health benefits that cult members must sign before receiving services they have paid for, is one of the most vicious ways the cult preys on the hopes of self-betterment in misled individuals.
As a cult salesman, I saw many prospects who came in looking for health improvements -- from growing hair to getting rid of cancer. This testimonial, published in Source magazine, December 1978, p.15, is typical of the indirect and veiled claims that the cult publishes and collects by the tens of thousands.
"I had a heart attack a year ago last July. I lost 2/3 of the heart. The danger of another heart attack was forever hanging over my head. With New Era Dianetics that just went "pop" you know Bye Bye. I know with certainty now that I'm not going to have any heart attack." - "B.P."
After reading that, cult members with heart trouble think they should get some of this new cult service, fast. And they do come in for auditing. As a salesman, I had them sign disclaimers and read policy directives saying that the cult could cure nothing. But both they and I "knew" the disclaimers were only for legal purposes, because of false and unjust attacks by the government and the monopolizing A.M.A. which made it illegal for Scientology to cure anything. In my experience, cult members really and fully believe that cult services will cure their physical ailments, cancer, heart attacks, anything they need cured. After all, they read about it in testimonials or heard about it on the "rumor line." It's what they want to hear. We rationalized that the "church" could not legally print or claim openly that these testimonials were true. We "understood" that they had to use this more veiled and indirect way to tell us what benefit we would receive from cult services.
I believe the cult's use of success testimonials has two purposes: to indirectly imply benefits to the buying public and to control cult members if they ever change their minds. These glowing euphoric subjective stories are solicited from cult members just moments after intense personal indoctrination. I and others have written the most unbelievable success stories while under total environmental influence and pressure. My written statement makes it very difficult to say later, "I didn't get it, I didn't receive a benefit." No one would dare. They would look like a fool when shown their own handwritten and signed testimonials saying they had received such-and-such benefits.
Intense pressures, undue influence, and stress require that cult members write testimonials.
Cult members get so zealous in the writing of testimonials that a subtle game comes to exist: who can write the testimonial that best forwards the church's goals and values? The reward is recognition and admiration from other cult members, because now you have attained whatever you wrote, and you must be OK because you're getting "gains" using the cult's methodologies. From Advance magazine, December, 1978:
"This is the state I have been looking for for a very long time. It's a completely different game to be operating as an OT than it used to be when I was being a `human.'" - Jeanne Vollum.
When hopes aren't enough, Hubbard preys on fear of getting worse to manipulate more money into the cult's tax-free coffers. I was trained on a technique to find out what was "ruining" the prospect's life and get him to agree that if he didn't do something, it would get worse. Then I would get him to dwell on specific aspects of what getting worse would feel like. No matter what his fear was, I would say, "Scientology can handle that," and get him to pay for a "solution" to his problem. Throughout Scientology materials there are direct and indirect suggestions that you will get worse or harm will come to you if you don't get the next cult service. David Mayo, Hubbard's number one hand-trained technical expert, says in Advance magazine, December, 1978:
"A research fact which was impeding the further progress of clears and which applies to OT grades has been found by Ron. New Era Dianetics couldn't be run on clears or above without serious consequences to the body..."
Later, Hubbard came out with another policy directive saying that Dianetics couldn't be run on clears either.
At this time in the cult's history, almost every clear and above (over 6,000 people) had been run on Dianetics or New Era Dianetics processes and so were subject to "serious consequences to the body." Hubbard also "discovered" that many other people, without anyone having noticed, had "gone clear on Dianetics" and in other ways. The number of "clears" abruptly increased by about 20,000, which greatly increased the market for the now-mandatory services required to avoid "serious consequences to the body." This fear of bodily harm set up the largest money and profit boom in the cult's history. In one week, 2.3 million dollars was collected by a cult center dealing with clears and above who believed they were in physical danger and needed Ron's new cure for his own mistake. Of course this was all at the cult member's expense. According to Hubbard:
"To claim a pc lost time in auditing because of an error
in choosing processes or having to re-flatten one is highly fallacious.
We are selling hours of auditing and what that is is for us to
judge. We are selling actual salvage from Death itself. Rebate.
How silly. The person was lucky we were around at all and took
an interest..."
- L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 23 May 1965.
This same fear control mechanism was used against me, to get me to sign affidavits incriminating myself and protecting the cult. This was done while I was in a state of near-hysteria, believing I was going to die from "serious consequences to the body" resulting from my auditing. If I didn't sign the affidavits they wrote, I would be denied the only cure for the condition I was in and I would be denied all access to salvation for all eternity.
Hubbard's fear techniques are also used to control dissident or ex-cult members.
By this time the reader of this affidavit should be getting some understanding of the indoctrination and other measures used to control the cult and its members. As a cult salesman I have seen and been part of these uses of fear. I've seen it used so effectively that within several hours one cult member loaded $12,000 in cash into a paper bag to escape the "serious consequences to the body" that he feared he was subject to due to Hubbard's mistakes. I have seen mass euphoria when most of the personnel of a whole cult center worked on a wealthy cult member, Cooper Rounds, to get him to donate more than $100,000. He finally gave in to the finely orchestrated and carefully planned and carried out sales plan. I have seen cult members do the impossible, motivated by cult-instilled hope and fear, to get the money to get the cure. And when they still aren't cured, they still keep coming back, time and time again -- if they've been properly indoctrinated. The next mystery, the next service, will give them salvation.
I have seen subtle suggestions imply promise of the greatest possible benefits from cult services. I have witnessed in myself and others the influence of suggested values, suggested gains, and suggested results. I have seen little actual benefit apart from subjective euphoria. Indoctrinated members come to believe that their cult-motivated subjective self-delusions are real. They make themselves think they really are out of their bodies or seeing objects miles away or reading minds. They believe they are cured of all personal problems -- at least for a while, until some objective reality jars their euphoria. Then they go back and pay for the next service, the next level of subjective euphoria, which will they believe will handle their problems.
The Christian Scientists have known about this for years (but are not so manipulative and exploitative). Salesmen have known about it. It's the power of positive thinking. From my experience, all the "gains" I received in Scientology were no more than deceptively induced and reinforced belief that I was better, cured, stronger, smarter, and anything else I wanted to believe.
The cult is a closed system where one member's subjective euphoria becomes the sales pitch, demonstration, and motivation for the next cult member. That's how members learn how they are supposed to feel and what result they should experience after each cult service. In this closed system, cult members go on selling each other, building and reinforcing the belief system, stamping out doubts until they sincerely believe, from their own misinterpreted subjective experiences, that they have attained something from the cult. It is a carefully engineered bubble. For some, the bubble remains intact as long as they remain within the insulating environment that created it.
The only hope I see for cult members to become able once again to look objectively at their lives and what is going on in the cult, is to somehow break free of the accepting-believing habit and really evaluate all the data rather than mindlessly writing off all conflicting viewpoints as "A.M.A. lies" or "government harassment." One might even consider the possibility he has been steered and led by "cult propaganda," and that there may have been deception.
That is how I finally came to writing this affidavit. I began to look for myself and ask questions which the cult didn't like. I demanded answers rather than PR evasions. I got away from the closed environment of the cult and, from a new viewpoint, looked at the cult's activities and what I had really attained. I investigated things for myself that were hidden from me by the cult's public relations policies.
I would never, never recommend forced de-programming or kidnapping. If we violate the legal rights of cult members then, instead of reason and law, we just get more force, coercion, and indoctrination. My best advice to cult members is to not give up your right to look at all sides and evaluate logically the claims of all sides. Then make your own decision. It's your native and legal right.
While I was being flown all over the U.S. at cult expense to give glowing testimonials to thousands of cult members, there was one point in my speeches where I could feel a release of anxiety in the audiences. I had never experienced anything like it in the cult before. I spoke about desired gains that people had not received from the cult, and for just a few moments it was socially acceptable for the audience to be totally honest with themselves. I asked them to ask themselves a very suppressed question. Had they really received all the gains Scientology had promised? Had they really gotten their hopes of specific betterments fulfilled? When I asked those questions and openly admitted that I too had secret failed purposes, there was a great sigh of relief from the audience, as many of them for the first time admitted to themselves that they had not gotten what they wanted from Scientology. It was almost like I had broken some taboo for the audience. It was safe to admit now what failures they had had, since I had openly and publicly admitted mine.
I'm ashamed to say that I only did this to sell them Hubbard's next cure, "NED for OT's" which was supposed to fix all past failures.
I still remember the pain and frustration I saw in that audience. Unfortunately, I know now that "NED for OTs" was just more of the same. But the awareness is there, hidden behind nearly impenetrable taboos.
There are many past and present cult members who will come forward
and speak out, to explode their anger and pain of betrayal, once
we find a way to break the cult's grip of deception, fear, and
intimidation.
COUNTER MEASURES TO PROTECT YOURSELF
FROM THE CULT AND ITS ACTIVITIES
I recommend that any action or counter measures taken in regard to the cult be done in a legal and logical manner. Claims of abuse must be verified and investigated with due process of law before being acted upon. To do otherwise would reduce us to the level of the cult's operatives, eleven of whom are now in U.S. prisons. Show the cult that reason, truth, and the American jurisprudence system can overcome force, fear, and intimidation. Show them that their tactics are not necessary in a free America, or tolerated by honest, concerned citizens.
There are five guiding principles for any confrontation or counter measure against the cult.
1) Expose the cult publicly,
2) Know cult policy and tactics cold,
3) Know the cult's weakest points,
4) Sue and involve them in defensive legal actions,
5) Know, cooperate with and aid any persons and organizations trying to correct and legally fight the cult.
Principle #1: Be highly visible, for your own protection. You can expect a smear campaign or worse, so be known in advance to media people, mental health professionals, lawyers, law enforcement agencies, etc. in your area and, if possible, nationwide. Existing anti-cult organizations can help you with this. A cult attack against you is news and should be treated as such. Don't get into a confrontation with the cult from an isolated position.
The other side of this same coin is that you must have something to say to all these people who are supposed to know about you. Tell them about Scientology. Bring the cult into massive public exposure. Like a vampire which will die in sunlight, the cult must shield its activities in codes, secrecy, and security measures. Only legal investigations, exposure of cult abuses, and legal punishments will convince this group to reconsider and adopt ethical operating policies in relation to its critics and the laws of the United States.
How can you become too-visible-to-kill and bring this cult to public exposure? It's simple.
Part of visibility and public exposure is re-establishing the free and legal flow of information to cult members. There are many legal ways to do this.
Principle #2: Study the cult policies and tactics described in this report. Knowing these makes the mysterious and secretive cult predictable and can do wonders for your peace of mind. The predictability of cult actions is vital for both your defense and advantage in any conflict with the cult. For example, if you didn't know about the cult's secret evacuation policies, materials needed for discovery could be long gone before you could legally subpoena or freeze them -- if you didn't set up legal safeguards in advance to prevent this from occurring. If it looks bleak for the cult, a lot of individuals could become "expendable" under the justification of preserving the "only salvation for all mankind." That's why we worry about another Jonestown.
Know what you're dealing with.
Principle #3: Know the cult's weakest and most sensitive areas.
Principle #4: Sue, Sue, Sue - using every legal means at your disposal. When you sue, be sure to assign responsibility to those who actually control the organization -- Hubbard and his wife --and not just expendable local operatives. Name all the cult's corporations, trust funds, bank accounts, companies, and individuals in the US and overseas which hide, disguise, or control cult assets, reserves, and special "service fee reserve payment" accounts or entities.
The cult has assets of billions and hundreds of millions of dollars in suits against it. It will protect its cash and avoid damaging precedents even if it has to drain funds and bankrupt expendable front corporations to avoid payment of assessed damages from lost law suits.
Also, dog out public records of every suit ever filed on the cult -- every suit and counter suit. The cult has standard and predictable defense against various actions. You will save yourself and your lawyer hundreds of thousands of dollars in research and time. All of the cult's legal defense tactics are yours for the asking in public records.
If your issue involves a captive cult member, get the friends, family, or business associates of that person to sue the cult on whatever legal premise they can find. Because of cult policy on "Sources of Trouble," the cult will dismiss that person from services and staff and they will be no longer under direct cult influence and pressure.
Principle #5: Know, cooperate with, and aid your allies in any way possible. Allies include other people or organizations who have been involved in suits or exposure of the cult, as in newspaper articles or magazines. Allies would include organizations or government agencies that the cult has attacked, such as the AMA, FDA, etc.
"Cooperate with" could mean:
Any list of allies and agencies will be out of date almost before it is printed, but the following list may at least suggest ideas and starting points.
Wherever possible, it is best to contact an agency's national or international headquarters to obtain or give any information on the cult. In this way they can more quickly contact and/or inform their local organizations in areas where there are cult centers.
the US Justice Department
the FBI
the FDA
the Consumer Protection agency
the CIA and NSA for any data involving national security,
the IRS,
Interpol,
the American Medical Association,
the National Federation of Mental Health,
the World Federation of Mental Health in Switzerland,
the American Psychiatric Association,
the American Psychological Association.
Strom Thurmond, a South Carolina Republican, has in the past asked the FBI to check the cult's political connections. Ramond Banoun, US Assistant District Attorney, was the prosecutor in the cult case that sent 11 of the cult's highest officials to jail. There are, at this time, apparently Grand Jury investigations of the cult in Tampa and New York, according to Banoun. There are several anti-cult groups: The Volunteer Parents of America, Ted Patrick and his group, Joe and Ester Alexanter's Freedom Ranch in Tucson AZ, Gary McMurray of Portland OR, who won a $2,000,000 suit against the cult.
There are many suits against the cult you could join and help in. At this time there's a $200 million class action suit in Boston and a $20 million suit in LA by cult critic Paulette Cooper.
Here is a partial list of newspaper people who have reported factually on the cult:
Robert Gillette and Robert Rawitch of the LA Times,
Paul Krassner of the Realist,
Betty Orsini of the St. Petersburg Times,
Paulette Cooper author of "The Scandal of Scientology."
Here is a partial list of newspapers and magazines which have run articles critical of the cult
Chicago Sun Times,
St. Louis Post Despatch,
Denver Post,
Clearwater Sun,
Portland Oregonian,
Time Magazine,
Life,
People,
Today's Health Magazine,
Washington Post,
Stars and Stripes,
AMA News,
ABC TV,
Dell Publications Canada,
Christianity Today,
Coronet,
Dallas Morning News,
Houston Post,
Newsweek,
New York Post,
National Enquirer,
San Francisco Examiner
- to name but a few of the hundreds.
Another source of information on the cult is public records in Washington DC which contain the confidential cult documents seized in the raids by the FBI.
I do not personally approve of all the activities, policies, and procedures of all the groups and organizations listed here, but I see them as having more in common with the American system than Scientology does.
HOW TO GET YOURSELF OR SOMEONE ELSE OUT OF THE CULT
After I got away from cult pressures, to a quiet, safe environment among people who were neither for nor against the cult, I eventually began to see contradictions in my cult programming. I saw hypocrisies that led me to open my mind again to questioning and deciding for myself. I began to examine evidence, hard documentation, and proof. The only real and permanent way to get free of the cult is to understand what happened, and the questions listed below are ones that helped me begin the process of understanding.
Perhaps if you distribute these questions, and other sensitive cult materials, to cult members in front of their centers, it might start their questioning process. That is really the most important step in the escape of any cult member.
Please understand that I am totally against kidnapping or forced deprogramming, as this would be using be using their tactics and violating the Constitutional rights of cult members. Our legal system is the only avenue to pursue in dealing with this organization.
Some of these questions are phrased in cult terminology, to be more specific to cult members. Besides these questions, cult members should read an article published in "The Realist" by Paul Krassner. It is the best and most "matter of fact" newspaper article ever written on the cult's activities. I hope that my friends and many good people who are still inside the cult will begin to look for themselves and understand why I started questioning and left the group.
1) Regarding Hubbard's January 6, 1963 letter to President Kennedy: If Hubbard believes in religious freedom, the freedom to know, and freedom of speech and press, why did he allow the Guardian's Office to set up a program to steal books and articles from the Los Angeles library system? Hubbard's letter said: "Extreme measures such as attacking churches and burning philosophical texts are not going to solve anything." What does stealing books solve?
2) In chapter 18 of the book "Science of Survival," Hubbard wrote:
"A society... in which women are taught anything but the management of a family, the care of men, and the creation of the future generation, is a society which is on its way out. The historian can peg the point where a society begins its sharpest decline at the instant when women begin to take part, on an equal footing with men, in political and business affairs; since this means that the men are decadent and the women are no longer women... Those who would cheat women of their rightful place by making them into men should at last realize that by this action they are destroying not only the women but the men and the children as well. This is too great a price to pay..."
Is this a position that you support? Since Hubbard did, and his "command intention" guides Scientology organizations, why are women on staff, working day and night in business positions for cult financial profit, AND TOLD TO KEEP THEIR CHILDREN IN COMMUNAL NURSERIES?
3) If Scientology is a religion of communication and understanding, and believes in using its own discoveries to "better conditions in a troubled world," then why does Hubbard and the Guardian's Office use wild generalities in its attacks against supposed "enemies," and actively promote hate and despisement toward them?
4) Why does the cult promote freedom of information and endorse the Freedom of Information Act where it suits its purposes, but use electronic eavesdropping, burglary, and theft in violation of the privacy and Constitutional freedom of its adversaries?
If you think the cult believes in freedom of information, ask to see your Guardian's Office file or find out if the Guardian's Office would give the A.M.A. a copy of its file? -- just see what happens.
5) What "religion" uses a 10% commission system to get members to get money from other members?
6) If the "Church" is a religion in the United States, why is it a business in Mexico? Why is it not a "church" in every other foreign country as well?
7) Why does the "religion" have to use codes in its messages? Why are there so many security clearances and secrets involving Guardian's Office activities? What are they hiding from you?
8) Why does Hubbard claim in the public press that he does not control the cult, when you know that, in fact, he sets all policies and programs and is constantly issuing new orders? Why is he hiding his control? Is he trying to avoid legal and financial responsibility and protect his profits? Can you evade accountability for your actions in this manner?
9) Where does the money come from for Hubbard to live like a king, surrounded by 50-70 cult-provided personal servants and staff? Why does he claim that he is getting almost nothing from the cult, when in fact he controls the use of all the cult's assets and receives tremendous book royalties created by cult personnel and sales? Why does he live like a king while general staff live practically like paupers?
10) If the cult cares so much about its members, why do they become "expendable" when caught in illegal cult-directed activities?
11) If auditing increases ability, then why is auditing so hard for staff members to get? Why doesn't the cult use its processes, which no one else has, to gain an advantage and solve its problems and take over the world? Could this "tease" be a way of controlling staff members to get free labor?
12) What was the Guardian's Office doing with the gun and knockout drugs that the FBI found in its offices? What religion practice might they be used for?
13) Why does the group urge its members to borrow money for services, in clear violation of "admin tech" which says never to borrow money from anyone?
14) Why does the Guardian's Office use a book called "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu as its "Bible" of strategy?
15) Why would a religion use military espionage manuals and tactics to silence its adversaries, instead of communication, public demonstration of benefits, and Constitutionally legal measures?
16) Why are new people not told, when they join, that OT III will give them an opportunity to exorcise their evil demons and spirits?
17) Why does the cult use fear of dying to protect the secrecy of upper level materials?
18) Why are fear, threat, and intimidation used to keep staff members from leaving -- for example, being declared "SP," losing any chance to go clear and OT, not to mention huge freeloader's debts?
19) Why is the vague generality "everything they are saying about us is lies" used so heavily by the Guardian's Office PR bureau to explain each and every criticism of the "church" in papers, magazines, and books? Why is it so "taboo" for you to read those things?
20) Why do you just accept their blanket generalities without demanding documentation and proof? Isn't this important enough in your life? What about the criticisms and statements they just drop, avoid, never mention, and evade even when asked about?
21) Why are so many staff here today, promoted as "top highly trained professionals," and then tomorrow demoted, investigated, and declared SP's or sent to the R.P.F.? A classic example: When was the last time you heard about John McMasters, Clear #1, who was later found out to be a homosexual?
22) Why do so many OTs and highly audited people die of common diseases like cancer and heart disease? For example, ASHO Commanding Officer Yvonne Jentzsch died of a tumor, and Hubbard's own son, Quentin, died under "mysterious circumstances." Where are all the health benefits that are subtly implied (but never actually stated) in almost every success story published?
23) How many "OT abilities" have you objectively witnessed to be true? How many people who are "OT" have you seen in ethics trouble, sick, or incompetent? How many times have you actually verified OTs leaving their bodies, seeing through walls, or reading minds -- or have you really just heard stories about other people's subjective, hopeful, self-created euphoria?
24) Why hasn't Hubbard released OT 8, which is supposed to provide objective proof of OT abilities? Would such a claim "blow the whistle" and end his cash flow?
25) Why is the group "pulling in" so many "motivators" from the outside environment -- if it has done nothing and isn't committing overts? [Hubbard's concept of overts and motivators is a cult restatement of the maxim, "what you sew you shall reap."]
26) When are you going to "TR3" these questions to an
answer?
Put your attention on what the Guardian's Office PR bureau avoids. See what happens to you when you start asking questions. Just ask -- and observe their reactions. Then, decide for yourself if vital information about group misdeeds, deceptions, and their real intentions, is being withheld from you.
Start asking yourself (and group officials) questions like:
Just see what happens when you ask questions like these.
There is a little-known cult policy that can be used by relatives or friends to get a loved one out of the cult. They kick out people who might become trouble for them. The cult considers anyone who has sued, threatened to sue, or whose relative or friend has involved the cult in a lawsuit, to be a "potential trouble source" (PTS) and a security risk. By its own policy, the cult must remove that person from staff or services until the suit is handled or stopped.
Thus a legal avenue exists for the family and friends of cult members to get their loved ones away from the cult, where there may be at least a possibility that the person will examine information about the cult and make their own decisions. This is uncertain, because the well-indoctrinated cult member carries the cult's pressures and fears within himself, but it's a chance. There is no need to use illegal acts such as forced deprogramming or kidnapping. You can use legal means and your knowledge of the cult's internal policies to beat the cult at its own game.
All that a family member has to do to use this "Catch 22"
is go to his lawyer and get a suit filed against the cult, listing
all interested parties. Use our great legal system, not illegal
means.
Sue, Sue, Sue. The cult hates suits, and the expense and
publicity, when it is defending itself.
It loves them when it is attacking and attempting to bankrupt
its enemies per LRH policy, "The purpose of a lawsuit
is to harass and discourage rather than to win." and
"The law can be used very easily to harass."
Start using their own legal strategies against them. What's good for the goose is good for the gander -- if it's legal.
WHAT I FEEL THE CULT'S TACTICS TOWARD ME WILL BE
1) They will devise a cover story to cancel my certificates and awards, so that any credibility I have inside the cult will be nullified. The cover story will also explain how I was able to go so far up the cult's levels and without being discovered as an SP (suppressive person) long ago. They must explain the fact that they flew me all over the country, at their expense, as a showpiece for the power of "NED for OTs" auditing. Their cover story will be made to seem rational and reasonable so that my former cult friends and close associates will treat me as "fair game" and an enemy.
2) Confidentially, within the cult, I will be declared "fair game".
3) The Guardian's Office will start its "affidavit mill," using my old cult friends, associates, and enemies to discredit my character. They will "rewrite history" to connect me to drugs, crime, sexual perversion, or to suggest personal insanity or that I am working for the FBI or CIA. They will go back through all my confidential "confessional" folders that the "church" insists are never used or disclosed, and try and find incriminating or discrediting data.
4) They will devise programs to upset and enturbulate me, and try to make me live in constant harassment and fear, so that I will be unable to work and make a living.
5) They will devise programs to frame me for illegal acts before, during, and after suit.
6) They very well might put a "contract" out on me, but, due to my being in the public eye, this could be dangerous to them. So they will choose a style that is secretive, slow in development, and untraceable -- perhaps using poisons or chemicals to produce "natural" disease or illness. They will make any harm which occurs to me seem purely accidental or natural. They can not risk a direct, quick, or traceable action because of the danger to them if the action were exposed.
7) They will promote hatred of me inside the cult, but in a controlled manner for fear that some cult zealot might be "triggered" and fulfill his "duty" by taking retribution into his own hands. That would make very bad PR for the cult, and would raise questions they don't want asked.
8) The cult will start legal suits against me, in addition to their covert programs. They will do their best to find errors or minor discrepancies in this affidavit (even typographical errors), in an effort to get all the true data discredited and ignored. Assuming that such errors will be found, I caution the reader to make them disprove each and every point in this affidavit.
I have developed counter measures and defense measures against what I expect them to do, that will increase legal scrutiny of any "Art of War" strategies used against me by the cult in disregard of my Constitutional rights and protections.
I have had to consider all the data in this report and weigh all factors of personal safety against the harm of not writing this data and making it known for the safety of others. In the most difficult decision of my life, I decided to write this in spite of my fears and worries. I have the courage to speak up, hoping that others will speak up too and help correct a cult that has gone way off the deep end -- before something of the magnitude of Jonestown occurs again.
A WARNING
The cult has become a master of deception and illusions. Like a chameleon, they disguise their activities and true purposes under the protective screen of "religion" and "religious practice." The cult has mastered propaganda techniques to destroy its enemies and critics and forward its own sinister purposes. Only someone with experience of cult activities on the secret Levels 2 and 3 would be able to put the pieces together and reveal the true cult.
The cult, in its covert activities, is not unlike the Ninja of ancient Japan who created their own legends of almost supernatural powers to incapacitate and intimidate their enemies and critics. Like the Ninja, the cult shrouds itself in secrecy, mystery, and an aura of ruthless attack against anyone who dares oppose them. This intimidation has been so successful that a high F.B.I. official commented to me that 99% of individuals found in seized documents to have had their Constitutional rights violated by the cult, refused to take part in any further legal action against the cult. They had had enough. They were unwilling to risk being future targets of cult harassment and intimidation. But now there are signs showing that the cult is getting worried and dusting off its secret evacuation plans once again. The tide seems to be turning.
Legally, the cult is losing. It lost a $2 million suit to a Portland woman and former cult member. It lost the U.S. Government case in which it paid large fines and 11 of its highest officials, including Hubbard's wife, were sent to jail. Based on cult documents seized by the F.B.I., which show the cult's illegal activities in trying to drive her into a mental institution, Paulette Cooper has filed a $20 million suit -- nearly an open and shut case. There is a $200 million class action suit in Boston against the cult. There are many, many other suits pending.
The invincible illusion is crumbling. Scientology's enemies, many made so by the cult's outrageous actions towards them, are breaking the cult-inspired fear/mystery threat grip and are starting to fight back. Hopefully, they will recognize common purposes and start cooperating more among themselves. This possibility is one of the cult's greatest fears and motives for continued "dirty tricks" and harassment.
As the cult's tactics become more widely known, it seems to be slowing down its famous zest for filing suits on individuals, newspapers, and magazines. Few suits have been filed against recent critics. No slander or libel suit has been filed against the Los Angeles Times which recently printed articles exposing the cult's secret documents and activities discovered in the F.B.I. raid. This is a sure sign that there was too much truth in the articles. Since the F.B.I. raid produced so much new evidence, the cult has dropped active pursuit of old slander suits against its critics.
The Mafia / SS / Ninja type of fear / mystery / threat image is exactly what the cult's inner circle counts on to intimidate would-be critics, attackers, and former cult members. This is how they keep cult members quiet and controllable, and discourage new suits or actions which would reveal their crimes. The cult has falsely exaggerated its membership to add to the "they are big, powerful, everywhere" illusion. The cult claims five million adherents worldwide. This ridiculous claim must be based on book sales and mailing lists, not on active "taking service" membership. Claiming five million members is like saying that everyone who buys a Hare Krishna book in an airport is a Hare Krishna member. From my best estimates, the cult has maybe 50,000 to 125,000 active members worldwide.
Inflated membership figures are a deceptive attempt to create an illusion of "massive constituency" to religious and political communities. They imply that investigation of the cult would create a major "religious persecution" image to the outside world, rather than be recognized as factual investigation of criminal activity.
Hubbard and the cult's top leadership are the engineers of Machiavellian schemes --
--schemes for the destruction of all competition including the A.M.A., A.P.A. and any medical or psychiatric group,
--schemes that seek dominance of every man, woman, and child on earth through the use of Hubbard's Level 2 programming,
--schemes that seek directly and indirectly to control or influence every government on earth through the placing of captive personnel in key positions.
Hubbard and his cult, in their horror science fiction fantasies and mental instabilities, have created a powder keg of fanaticism -- Jonestown tinder just waiting to be ignited by a freakout of some sort within the cult's inner circle. With insane genius, the cult has carefully planned, researched, studied, checked and rechecked the smallest detail of the "religious" Grand Illusion that it uses to camouflage the danger.
Yet despite all its schemes and covers, the illusion is beginning
to topple under its own weight
-- which probably increases the danger of a Jonestown denouement.
This affidavit is the most complete compilation of cult activities and purposes to date. It is written by one who was a loyal cult member for 11 years and experienced the cult's secret Level 2 programming. It contains almost the whole picture, assembled in one place.
The data is here. What happens with it depends on the courage of those who know, and their sense of responsibility to their children, families, friends, and to the people of the U.S. and the world. It will take work to break the grip of fear and deception which sustains the cult.
Then it will become possible to subject the cult to the legal
procedures of American law so that legal sanctions may be initiated
-- hopefully before it is too late.
Larry D. Wollersheim