Ethics and Uniforms

IN 1968, FOLLOWING increasing assaults from press and parliament, many sparked off by the Anderson Report, organized Scientology began to harden its position and to counter-attack wherever possible. The famous `Disconnect' orders requiring Scientologists to dissociate themselves totally from any individuals labelled as `Suppressive Persons', which could, and occasionally did, cut husband off from wife, or parent from child, are in fact just one further sign of the movement's drift into group paranoia. The actions of the Ethics Department, intended to preserve total discipline (Ethics) within the movement and to discourage outside interference, was another step along these lines. Over the years, following the continued rejection of himself and his movement by establishment bodies such as Church, orthodox medicine, government, etc., Hubbard's own attitude had moved from jovial tolerance of the world's stupidity, to angry counterblasts both in word and deed.

His main target has always been psychiatrists and the established methods of medico-psychological treatment, and there are constant references throughout his writings to `medical imperialism', `psychiatric sadism', `electric-shock psychology', etc. In an issue of the magazine Certainty, under the somewhat curious title `Join the Crusade for a Happy Healthy England', Hubbard, in giving a rapid `history' of psychiatric treatment in the years before Dianetics, says that Pavlov's principal belief was that men were `animals' and could be conditioned `like dancing bears or dogs'. Freud is dismissed as an `Austrian Jew' whose `concentration on sex gave the subject considerable popularity'. He adds that `the results of psychiatry are physically damaging, consisting of various brutalities, and often injure the patient for life and kill him outright'. Psychology is `more concerned with and financed for warfare'.

Such ramblings, provided that they are confined to the Scientologist's own bizarre periodicals and Hubbard's own books, are relatively harmless. For a period, however, when the Scientologists were at their most aggressive, a far more sinister and dangerous situation began to arise. This seems to have been started by Hubbard's direct call for overt action on the part of Scientologists to back up their personal beliefs.

The story broke when The People of 20th March 1966 reported that they had tracked down a number of private detectives who had been hired by Hubbard to investigate the private affairs of various critics of Scientology. High on the list, of course, came the psychiatrists.

Answering an ad in the personal column of the Daily Telegraph a private detective, Mr Vic Filson, was hired by the Scientologists at L35 per week (plus car expenses) with the fantastic task of `investigating the activities of psychiatrists in Britain and preparing a dossier on each'. The first person on the list was to be Lord Balniel, who at the time was Chairman of the National Association for Mental Health.

There was to be no messing about. Hubbard has been reported as stating the following: `A psychiatrist today has the power to take a fancy to a woman, drug or shock her into temporary insanity, use her sexually, sterilize her to prevent conception, kill her by a brain operation to prevent disclosure.'

Psychiatrists violated not only persons but groups such as Scientology, and they had `very dirty hands'. The shrill blast continues: `We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one. This is Project Psychiatry. We will remove them.'

But it was not only psychiatrists who were seeking out Scientology's destruction. In the magazine Certainty, Vol. 16, No. 3, we find Hubbard declaring that every time he had investigated the background of a critic of Scientology he had found `crimes for which that person or group could be imprisoned...we did not find critics...who do not have criminal pasts'. Over and over again, Hubbard states, they had proved this. In one of his most unbalanced passages he declares: `Politician A stands up on his hind legs in a Parliament and brays for a condemnation of Scientology. When we look him over we find crimes - embezzled funds, moral lapses, a thirst for young boys - sordid stuff. Wife B howls at her husband for attending a Scientology group. We look her up and find she had a baby he didn't know about.'

And so on. The message is crude but simple. When you find a critic of Scientology tell him that unless he desists `we will look up - and we'll find and expose - your crimes. If you leave us alone we will leave you alone. It's very simple,' Hubbard continues. `Even a fool can grasp that.' Such people, like the worst kind of Suppressive Persons, were of course declared `Fair Game'.

Recently, in an attempt to erase the unsavoury image the founder has acquired for Scientology by such formal statements, spokesmen for the movement have interpreted this order as denoting that individuals who are `Fair Game' are merely deprived of the protection of the Scientology Organization and Ethics Office. A re-reading of the order, however, makes this hypothesis seem a bit thin and it is impossible not to feel chilled at the terrible phrases so callously written down, and their effect on people attempting to break away from the cult.

Like many other heads of bureaucratic organizations Hubbard seems to believe that anything that is not written down is not true; the spoken word is ephemeral and has no mass to it, while something written on paper becomes fact. This perhaps accounts for the obsession with paper-work, the countless bulletins, directives, sub-orders, memos, policy letters, etc., which Scientology Orgs circulate and file. It also accounts for the telex network which links all major Orgs across the world, a communications system of great efficiency that allows Hubbard, wherever he may be, to be in constant touch with any outposts of his empire.

A vivid account of the muddled administration network within Scientology has been given by Cyril Vosper, a former senior official within the movement whose recent book The Mindbenders is interesting in as much as it gives one the valuable opinion of an insider turned outsider. Far from producing efficiency it appears the obsessive paper-pushing wastes a colossal amount of time and is a constant source of gripe to the ill-paid minions who staff the various Orgs. From the Hubbard headquarters, wherever they may be, come policy letters and directives at all times of the day or night, listing new rules and regulations, occasional great thoughts from the Master himself, and details of the latest dramatic promotions or relegations, which are a feature of the frenetic Scientology scene. Each individual in an Org must have a `Comm basket' to stack piles of paper which move to and fro throughout the day, and the colour of the star on his basket indicates his status, whether `Power', `Non-Existence', etc. No one is spared, and one of the most heinous of Scientology crimes is to leave work with a full `Comm basket'.

On the boat even Hubbard's children find themselves with jobs as messengers, propagating the network of noise and paper. It is communication for communication's sake, and in the fantasy logic of Scientology this in itself is good enough. The quality or substance of the message being passed does not matter. All is done in the name of efficiency, and Scientologists pride themselves - in theory - on the streamlined operation of their Orgs.

`Scientology is the most vital force on this planet and Saint Hill staff its select team of leaders', we read in The Auditor No. 12. `Now is your chance to join this fabulous team', it continues, adding that `Ron says that by 1966 we will have expanded to 266 staff members and occupy twice the space.'

In this same issue we also see the first signs of uniforms which appeared in Saint Hill in 1965. Making it clear why it is necessary to have uniforms The Auditor continues: `Scientologists are in the forefront of society today. Their alertness, their enthusiasm are visible to all and in this unaware, aberrated world a group of Scientologists stand out from their fellows like beacons. Scientology is the most vital philosophy in the world today, in fact that the world has ever seen.'

Waxing ever more enthusiastic, the article goes on, `The leaders of this rapidly growing movement of truth are the Org staff members. So it's only fitting that they have a uniform...that they can wear in the full pridefulness of what it stands for; Truth and the establishment of good order and freedom for Man to attain higher states of existence'.

After this stirring message it is disappointing to find out that the uniform consists of grey flannel trousers and blue blazers for the men and grey skirts with blue blazers for the women.

Within a few years, however, uniforms were to seem a good deal less attractive to the staff of Saint Hill. In 1967, with Hubbard out of the country and the emphasis shifting steadily to the Sea Orgs, a decline in the fortunes of the East Grinstead headquarters - imperceptible at first but steadily becoming more noticeable - took place. In September of that year a cable from Hubbard's boat told the flabbergasted crowd at Saint Hill that they had been declared in a `state of Non-Existence'.

To most of the staff and students this was a real blow, and the penalties associated with this Condition were sorrowfully but meticulously obeyed. These it will be recalled, included the working of overtime without pay and an embargo on bathing, washing, shaving, etc. To others, in particular those who had been with the movement from the early days and many of whom were personally acquainted with Hubbard, the restrictions were ridiculous and intolerable. Several felt that it must be all some kind of mistake and carried on in their usual fashion, trying to ignore the stink that began to arise from their unwashed colleagues who had meekly toed the party line.

Presumably news of the partial refusal to obey orders must have been passed to the Ethics Department, for late one evening a car pulled up in the driveway of the Manor and four uniformed Ethics Officers, one a young girl, swept through the offices where overtime staff were still working away.

One of the most senior Scientologists present, a man who had worked for many years in the organization, relates that he was working at his desk when the members of the `Mission' appeared in his room. They presented him with a policy letter stating that Saint Hill was being taken over by the Sea Org. The three men and girl had `total ethics power'.

Then occurred a grim little incident, trivial perhaps in itself but hinting strongly at the unpleasant undercurrents which were coursing through the movement at the time. After handing over their orders, which gave them virtually dictatorial powers, one of the party ordered the Scientologist (he recalls) to take a cigarette out of his mouth. Understandably he refused, whereupon one of the men present seized him and removed his cigarette forcibly. It was done with strength, speed and a coarse brutality.

When he recovered from the shock, he got up and walked out of the Manor. For ten seconds he had seen an ugly face of the movement he had served and a decade of involvement with Scientology, much of it in an official capacity, was ended.

By now the growth of the symptoms of a dictatorial bureaucracy, including even the trappings of a uniformed police force, were attracting increasing attention from the press. In the late summer of 1968 Hubbard, or some of his associates, must have decided that a period of liberation was overdue. Perhaps news of the rough handling of Scientologists by the Ethics Officers were beginning to cause dissatisfaction and fear within the movement.

The phrase `Hubbard, or some of his associates' above is not an error. 1968 was the year which saw what seems to have been L. Ron's controlled holding over of the reins of power to the directors of Scientology as a business organization and as an incorporated religion. In theory this all began on 1st September 1966 (shortly after his return from Rhodesia) when he claimed to have quit all directorial posts in Scientology. On this date he sold the `goodwill' of the name `L. Ron Hubbard' to the Scientology movement for the tidy sum of L100,000 and, as the result of a special agreement, Orgs had to purchase the use of his signature.

One might fairly assume that this was an easy method for Hubbard to increase his own considerable fortune, but he is quick to dispel this illusion. In another of his famous letters he says that the real reason for requiring Orgs to buy his signature rights was because `the public demonstrably stays away from Orgs that do not bear the name "L. Ron Hubbard" and I do not wish to damage their traffic volume'.

Hubbard's personal fortune, which it is claimed he has amassed from Scientology, has always been in dispute, though it is hard to see how he can fail to have made immense sums from it. Hubbard can be - and has a right to be - unforthcoming about exactly how much he is worth, but according to a report in the Daily Mail of 3rd August 1968, he was telling close associates, just prior to leaving England in 1966, that he had nearly £3,000,000 in a secret Swiss bank account. There was a `personal account' in his name at the Pictet Bank in Geneva and the Mail claimed that money from Scientology Orgs all over the world has been channelled into this account, or into another `trustee' account in the same name. The Scientologists deny this strenuously.

Hubbard claims that he has loaned Scientology literally millions of pounds which he is prepared to forget. Reliable sources state that he used to draw a percentage, usually ten per cent, of the gross income of all Scientology Orgs, and even allowing for the waxing and waning in popularity of particular centres this would amount to a really meaty sum - the income of Saint Hill has been as high as L30,000 in one week for example. How much all this is affected by his supposed resignation as the head of Scientology is very unclear. Certainly he is now listed as `Founder' on letter-heads, and there are increasing signs of the reins being taken up by hands other than his - if very diffidently at first.

The cost of training at most levels in Scientology is high, and it should be remembered that levels follow each other up along a ladder which appears to have no topmost rung. Let's take a look at one typical ladder, bearing in mind that the frothy nature of the surface of Scientology and the frequent `breakthroughs' that occur at regular intervals, lead to unpredictable changes which may well make this ladder [obsolete] when the book is published. (Details are taken from The Auditor.)

At the bottom of the scale, you may take `Free Membership' in the Scientology Organization for six months, simply by applying in writing to your nearest Org. No obligation to take any courses or to spend any money accompanies this trial period, though if you do join you will be sent a string of letters and pamphlets urging you to buy this book or that, attend this or that Congress or purchase a tape of Hubbard talking. If you respond to any of these and actually part with any money, then the Org will shift gear and you will be invited to take an introductory course.

At the time of writing the bottom rung of the ladder is represented by the `Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist Course', which lasts a total of ten to twenty hours. This is followed by the `Hubbard Special Dianetic Course', which lasts about a month. Both these courses cost less than L50 between them and provide one with certificates. These in turn let one ascend the ladder from the lowly `Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist' to the more senior `Hubbard Qualified Scientologist'. At this point, when with the cost of books, etc., the student will have parted with about L100, he may be sufficiently ambitious to take the course for `Hubbard Recognized Scientologist'. Here he may be disappointed to realize that he is still, after all these exertions and certificates, only on Grade 0 of the seven rungs of the ladder leading to the state of Clear.

If still persistent and solvent he may now press on, parting with fees from between L10-L50 at each run, from `Hubbard Trained Scientologist' through `Hubbard Certified Auditor' and on to `Hubbard Professional Auditor'. Above this lie the goals of `Hubbard Advanced Auditor', `Hubbard Validated Auditor' and the impressive `Hubbard Senior Scientologist'.

By now, if his senses are not reeling with the glory of his achievement, he will have noted that the fees have suddenly become really substantial, the `Saint Hill Special Briefing course', which moves one up from rung Five to rung Six of the ladder, costing L323. He can now become a `Class VII' Auditor and the goal of Clear is near, there only remaining the little matter of `Power Processing' at L417 a shot, before one settles down to the clearing course itself.

And what does one get for all this? Not all that much if one is to believe the stories of those who have taken this lengthy course and later come to regret the money spent.

One individual, whose name is numbered among the first hundred Clears, doubts whether Clears really have anything show for all their trouble - at any rate anything likely to impress the non-Scientology world. The trouble is that the kind of person who gets involved in Scientology in many cases tends to be either young, naive and idealistic - and these often drop out to move on to other `religions' or `philosophies' or political movements - or the lonely, neurotic or inadequate for whom the extrovert social involvement of a Scientology course, and the constant statements about `great improvements' and `evolving states of being', etc., have a definite tonic effect. That tonic effect may well be temporary, as some disgruntled ex-Scientologists will testify, but by the time this is realized the individual may be too highly committed financially or ideologically to be able to back out easily and yet retain his own psychological self-esteem.

In addition there are many rewards of a minor, though at the time seemingly important, kind along the trail - the numerous certificates, the constant optimistic statements of other Scientologists and the hyper-confidence of Hubbard's writings and lectures. There is also the mystery-magic of the E-meter - which to many in the cult is a totally marvellous device - and the sense of achievement associated with the acquisition of a complex jargon, plus the increasing involvement with what appears to be an in-group as one ascends the scale.

There are also the occasional curious experiences known as `releases'. A release is described, by those who have experienced it, as a kind of emotional or psychic discharge which suddenly engulfs most Scientologists at some stage or another in their training. It appears to be akin to a minor mystical or religious experience, such as is often associated with conversion and it is accompanied by a sense of euphoria and apparently heightened perceptual awareness. If so, it is a phenomenon not at all rare among those with mystical, hysterical or even psychotic traits and its aura is of short duration and may be accompanied by a depressive hangover. Scientologists treat it as an objective and permanent personality change achieved as the result of the elimination of some major engram or hang-up.

The biggest let-down of all seems to be the state of Clear itself. It will be remembered that in the palmy days of Dianetics, it was believed that Clears, when they finally came along, would be immensely superior human beings - simply because they would be free of the huge accumulation of psychological garbage that they had acquired in numerous traumas since their birth and even before.

Beyond this was the state of Operating Thetan. This is a condition in which the Thetan (which it will be remembered corresponds to the human spirit or soul) can emancipate itself from the body and use its amazing powers at will. The Greek Gods, with their control of thunder and lightning and their other magical powers, Hubbard explained, were simply Operating Thetans who happened to be roaming around the world at the time amazing the yokels with their supernatural powers.

Even this fantastic stage of being, Hubbard and followers believe, should be reachable by humans using the techniques of Dianetics and Scientology.

All this was twenty years ago, and while the states of Clear and Operating Thetan still exist in the Scientological terminology, their supposed qualities have changed drastically with time. Gone, in the case of Clear, are the presumed telepathic ability, the `total recall of all perceptics', the acquisition of a photographic memory, the freedom from body aches, pains, colds, etc., which made the goal exceedingly tempting to the pioneer Scientologists. In their place we now find a Clear defined as a person who has `attained the state of being in which he is at cause over mental factors, is wholly himself, can follow his own basic purposes and is not reactive'.

This statement is meaningless outside the framework of Scientology. In fact so vague are the attributes of Clear that no one can dispute them. For example, if Scientologists claim that a Clear is genuinely `at cause' over mental factors, or is `wholly himself', then it is impossible for one to deny or even comment on this because there is no way of making an objective test of statements of this kind. On the other hand if it is claimed that Clears are more intelligent, better looking, have a greater resistance to pain or illness, then it is in principle possible to examine these claims and test them.

Scientologists reply to this kind of argument by saying that to a Scientologist the phrase `at cause' has a very precise definition, but can only be so defined within the logic of the philosophy of Scientology. This is fair enough, of course, provided that it is realized that this is now not a transferable system - in other words the supposed attributes of a Clear mean nothing to the outside world and have no practical objective application in it. At any rate it is a far cry from the times when Clears talked of growing new teeth, making antigravity machines or living to be four hundred.

The new goal in Scientology, not achieved at the time of writing, is that of Operating Thetan. Like the road to Clear, that to Operating Thetan consists of a series of carefully delineated steps or stages, each costing money - it now runs into thousands of pounds. One asks what are the attributes that will go with the state of Operating Thetan for those who achieve it? Will thunder and lightning crackle at their fingertips, as at those of their predecessors, the Gods of Olympus? It seems very unlikely. And furthermore, when the state is achieved, who, apart from the Operating Thetans themselves, will be impressed?

On 26th August 1968, not more than a month after he had been told that he would not be granted re-entry into England, and in the wake of the biggest press blast - almost entirely unfavourable - that Scientology had received, Hubbard announced that `Security Checks' were being abolished. These `checks' - and also the kind of prying by private detective, amateur spying, accumulation of gossip, etc., - which led to the declaration of individuals as `Suppressives' and their subsequent labelling as `Fair Game' were abandoned for a number of reasons. The first and foremost, which comes in amazing contrast to earlier statements, reads: `We have no interest in the secrets and crimes of people and no use for them.'

Another was frank and revealing: `There is public criticism of security checking as a practice.' This statement, with its strong suggestion that the founder of Scientology was becoming bothered about public criticism, is in its way a landmark in Scientology, a welcome sign of pragmatic realism.

But this was just the beginning. On 14th October Hubbard announced a new Auditor's Code to guide the conduct of professional Scientologists when auditing or processing other people. This manifesto, with its twenty-eight points, was described as superseding all other codes and was to be learnt by heart by all `auditors and students under training'. The points range from the obscure (i.e., jargon-ridden) such as `I promise to grant beingness to the preclear in session' or `I promise never to run any one action beyond its floating needle' to the dramatic such as `I promise not to permit sexual liberties or violation of the mentally unsound'. There are, in addition, certain very direct commands, which, one feels, are intended to clarify the shifting role of Scientology in answer to its critics. For example, Code No. 15 reads: `I promise not to mix the processes of Scientology with other practices except when the preclear is physically ill and only medical means will serve.' While No. 24, in similar implicit vein states: `I promise not to advocate Scientology only to cure illness or only to treat the insane, knowing well it is intended for spiritual gain.'

Both these codes clearly attempt to define the role of an auditor vis-a-vis, say, psychotherapists or even physicians, a definition which in many people's eyes was long overdue. Even in this solemn-sounding catalogue, Hubbard couldn't resist the temptation to get in his traditional dig against psychiatry. Code No. 26 states: `I promise to refuse to permit any being to be physically injured, violently damaged, operated on or killed in the name of "mental treatment".'

Keeping the ball rolling swiftly and continuing the policy of `liberalization', on 1st November 1968, Issue 42 of The Auditor carried a giant headline `INTERNATIONAL AMNESTY'. In a terse statement, signed by himself, Hubbard declares: "To celebrate the advent of Standard Tech, an international amnesty is declared for all Scientologists and Scientology Organizations and franchises over the world effective 1st November, A.D. 18. All acts before that date are freely forgiven.'

This magnanimous gesture, which amounted to an effective ending of the Condition known as `Fair Game', and to the general harassing and persecution of ex-Scientologists and the movement's antagonists - psychiatrists included - is another obvious response to protest from within and without the movement. The official reason given, however, is the achievement of `Standard Tech', another of the major advances which occur so frequently throughout the cult's history, but which are rarely explicable to anyone not thoroughly steeped in the jargon. A short piece in the same issue of The Auditor, `What is Different About Standard Tech?', attempts to explain, but succeeds only in adding another puzzling article to the many thousands that have already been published in this journal.

`Isn't it the same Tech? Isn't it the same Scientology? Same drills same Processes?', the article begins breathlessly, and continues in the same vein:

Yes. It is. It's the same Scientology, the same axioms, the same grades and OT sections.

But the APPLICATION is STREAMLINED.

Instead of fifteen possible actions to correct something on a Case, Ron worked it down to one action that fitted the lot.'

It's as simple as that. `Like tuning up a motor', it adds incomprehensibly. If you don't know anything about motors then you have a hard time getting one to run, and when it doesn't run you don't get full performance out of it. Then along comes a new handbook written by an expert, and the results are dramatic.

It's the same motor, same tools. But wow look at it go NOW!

The above extracts will serve to give something of the flavour of the material propagated by The Auditor, and by all accounts eagerly devoured by its readers.

In line with the new policies, and presumably the new image of Scientology, the New Year issue of The Auditor reaches new heights of effusive bonhomie. Wishing `a happy 69 to you', Hubbard gives a brief message to his clans:

As Scientology enters A.D. (After Dianetics) 19, we have big plans and purposes to make this a better world for everyone in Scientology.

Less Ethics, more tech, bigger orgs, new civic groups and all the truly good things in life.'

`But be that as it may, what I want to say is, I'm hoping for a really good year for YOU personally. I'm doing all I can to make it so.

The piece is signed, `Love, Ron'.

On the same page, in an article on `The Value of Scientology', Hubbard refers to the `screaming apes' of the press and the `cold sadists who run the learned societies'. He also comments that `mental "health" has been perverted into an excuse for a Belsen or an Auschwitz by the older practices in the field'. There may have been an International Amnesty, but this article suggests that L. Ron still keeps his enemies in his sights.

 

All At Sea

From Psychotherapy to Religion