------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- The Scandal of scientology Paulette Cooper A TOWER BOOK THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY Tower Publicalions, Inc. 185 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10016 Copyright '(/'Z) NICMLXXI by Paulette Cooper Printed in U.S.A. All Rights Reserved "d to my parents TED & STELLA with all my, love, and thanks ~; Conlenls REFACE ...... -.- .................... .... 9 x'TRODUCTION ......................... 13 1. FROM DIANETiCS TO SCIENTOkOGY ........ - .............. 21 ~. THE CONFESSIONALS ................ 27 3. EIFE AND SEX IN THE WOMB ......... 31 ~. I~\VE YOU LIVED BEFORE THIS LIFE7 .......................... 37 5. SPREADING THE WORD .............. 43 5. THE ORG ........................... 47 ~. THE SEA ORG ....................... 51 ~. 'DIE BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN ORGS ................. 57 ). ATTACKING THE ATTACKERS ........ 69 ). THE SUPPRESSIVES .................. 75 [. THE SEXUAL AND CRIMINAL SECURITY CHECK ................... 85 >-. THE WORLD OF SCIENTOLOGY ...... 93 t. CHILDREN AND CELEBRIILES ........ 99 I-l. SCIENTOLOGY--BUSINESS OR RELIGION? .......................... 107 15. 1S SCIENTOI_OGY POLITICAL? ........ 115 It';.SCIE'ciztction 19 few diflicult situations, I knew ~'hat his glazed look meant. 1 w~ fi-~ht. "God h~s decided to rape you," he said slowly, as he started walking all too quicldy toward me. I didn't dare show how frightcried I was. The trick for handling people when they got dangerous at the hospita/ was to keep talking--to keep them talking. But now with both arms like a vise around me, and only one thought on his mind, it was hard to find another topic to interest him. "Tell me more about Scientology," I finally said. This worked. He released his grip and went into ano,&er trance, talking again about how Scientology had helped him. "Just look at what it's done for me," he said, while I was trying to steer him out the door. I took a long, hard look. Two weeks later he was in a mental institution- ~.i : A~er that evening, I put Scientolog~' down on my list as a possible topic to write about. But I didn't really de- cide to investigate it until 1 bumped into another old friend who had a/so become a Scientologist. He too tried to persuade me to join. "I know all about that," I said, cutting him off right in the middle of his perfectly practiced sales pitch. "In fact, do you remember--who used to work with us in our company? He was in Scientolog~'." "I 'know," said my Scientolo~ fi-iend proudly. "I was the one who brought him in." i "Well," I fumed, "do you also 'know that he is now in a mental institution? While he was in Scientolo~, he de- cided he was God." "MoO'be," said my Scientologist friend, "/ze really is." CHAPTER ONE FR03I DI.~NETICS TO SCILNTOLOGY The sun never sets on Scientology --from "The Aims of Scientolo~'" In 1950, a fad called "Dianetics" hit America like a hurricane, attracting hundreds of thousands of people, especi~21y on the West Coast, by promising to cure them of all of their problems without subjecting them to all those tedious hours required by psychoanalysis. To understand the cause of all their problems, and cure them, all they had to do was read a book ~Titten by a sciencefiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard. But in addition to le~ng people cure themselves, this book had son:ething to offer those people who had always secretly wanted to be doctors and to cure others. It allowed them to do this without all those tedious years of required training. All they had to do was also read the book by Hubbard. The impact of this book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, was incredible. Dianetics clubs sprang up ever3wvhere. People referred to Hubbard's book simply as The Book, and thought of it more as The Bible. Thousands were throwing Dianetic parties and relixing their birth (in keeping with the Dianetics Philosophy which stated that a person's prenatal experiences were the cause of many of that person's problems today). What had once been a Seanee had at last become Science. 21 22 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY But then, just when everyone was ha~4ng fun. a few critics had to come along and spoil it all. Dianetics was discredited bv the professional doctors and their organizations, and .4ancrica deserted it to search for Bridey Murphy (the Irish wom~--n who believed she had been reincarnated) instead. Dianetics then also quietly under~,ent a rebirth. First, people could no longer become "doctors" just by buying Hubbard's book. Instead, they had to pay to take comes at his institutions before they could get "professional" status. Secondly, Hubbard changed the "science" of Dianetics to a "reli~on." And last, he re~ named this religion "Scientology." Not even.'one applauded these moves. One critic said the name "Scientology" was no more impressive than if a fruit shop proprietor decided to call himself a "Fruitolojst." But most of the objections--and suspicion-were levied not at the name but at the "reli~on." Agnostics seemed to resent the reli~on, and the relijous may have resented the a~osticism. Scientolo~sts did accept the idea of God, but believed that God existed in each man as a "thetan," which is rouf2dy comparable to the "spirit" or "soul." They therefore preached that man doesn't tzave a soul or spirit--he is a spirit called a thetan. God. when he was referred to, was sometimes called the Big Thetan. In addition tO worshipping a deity, kientolo~' also had some other religious elements as well. Its adherents were imbued with a missionary fervor, eager to march forth and deliver the gospel according to Hubbard. In addition, the followers took on faith in eveD'tl~ing Hubbard said. And finall}', L. Ron Hubbard-or "Ron" as believers called him--the Western Guru, inventor, leader and promoter of Dianetics and ScientoloD', while never proclaiming he was God, was placed in an almost equally exalted position by his followers. Many people were still suspicious about Dianetics' conversion to religion, perhaps because the "science" of From Dianetics to Scientology 23 Dianetics had run into so m~y difficulties that mining it into a religion and renaming it may have seemed like an attempt to evade its per~'asive problems. The first problem was the desertion of one of the earliest and most prestigious adherents of Dianetics, Dr. J. A. ~,Vinter. Winter had ~Titten the foreword to Hubbard's book and had become the director of Hubbard's Dianetic Institute. After he severed his relationship with Dianetics, he ~TOte a book called A DoctoFs Report on Dianetics, which not only criticized Hubbard's research and methods, but said that Dianetics was causing people to go psychotic. He discussed the case of one person who was treated by the Dianetic institute and then disappeared, returning later and stating he had with him "one of my disciples, Saint Simon..." In addition, in JanuaD' of 1951, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners instituted proceedings against Hubbard's Dianetic Organization for operating an unlicensed medical school, and possibly for letting people append an "M.D." after their names, representing not a "Medical Doctor" but a "Master of Dianetics." Also, Hubbard had some philosophical differences with a Dianetic Foundation he had established in California and broke off with them. Hubbard's Wichita foundation filed a voluntary petition of bankruptcy on Februnh' 2t, 1951. Some of Hubbard's other organizations in Phoenix, Philadelphia and London were successful, but he ran into difficulties later in Washington when he established The Founding Church of Scientolo~.c,y there. And then, to add to Hubbard's troubles and successes, he brought ScientoloD' abroad. By March, 1959, Hubbard had moved the entire operation over to Engiand's Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, Sussex, right outside London. He left America, according to the London Times "because the atmosphere was being poisoned by nuclear experiments." By the time he left America, he had 153 franchised Scientology auditors here. A "franchise" may be a strange structure for a group that insists they're a Church, and 24 ~ SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY that may explain why they've recently renamed them "missions." It doesn't matter whether they are called missions or franchises. What does matter is that they all had to turn over ten percent of their Foss income to Hubbard. In addition, bx' that time. he had established headquarters or "Orgs" a_q the)' c~.1l them (short for organizations) in various parts of Australia, AXTica, New Zealand and Europe--all turning over ten percent of their income to Hubbard, too. While such an arrangement would seem quite enviable, Hubbard's problems were just beginning. The British were not enchanted with Soientology. They refused to recognize Saint Hill as a Church--Hubbard could only claim it as an educational establishment. Then, they refused to give Scientology students visas to enter the country for study or work at Saint Hill. And finally, they decided to set up an Inquiry into Scientology, which is now under way. ff the Inquiry is an3~daing like the other Inquiries, Hubbard's problems are far from over. After Victoria, Australia, completed its Scientology Inquiry, Scientology was banned and its practice was made punishable by up to $500 and m.o years in jail. In South Australia, officials outlawed Scientology and their use of E-meters, a device similar to a lie detector. In Western Australia, Scientolo~ was also banned. In New Zealand officials conducted an Inquiry into Scientolo~', but decided not to ban it because they felt it had changed (although they did criticize some of its earlier methods and expressed concern over certain Scientolo~ practices). Scientology was not banned in New South Wales, however, where anybody can set himself up as a consulting psychologist (one New South Wales man who was convicted of kidnapping and murder had at one point in his career styled trimself as a therapist). And in South Africa, where an Inquiry is currently under way, it does not look hopeful. One witness allegedly testified that the Scientologists were planning to arm 5.000 Africans and seize control of the government. A member of South From Dianetics to Scientology 25 Africa's Parliament referred to Scientole~ as a "c~cer like communism that could destroy South Africa." And vet, despite all the Inquiries, despite all the ban- nines, dnd despite art the negative publicity, outsiders esti~mate that the Scientologists probably have several hundred thousand followers in .~nerica (possibly a qua:-ter of a million in California alone), maybe one hun&ed thousand in England, and possibly two to three million in the world. The Scientolo~sts' own figures ue even more glowing; they claim at least four million members in America and probably five ion members in the world. One thing is certain--kientology is ex- panding, and probably tripled or quadrupled its members in the past few years. ~,~,"hat is the future of Scientology'? Will its adherents '~i revive Dianetics, as they are doing in America and Eng- .~; land now, if they run into more and more difficulties? ~ Will they repeat thek claims that they are a science, or will they make their claims that they are a religion even , ~. more vociferously? In a letter titled "Scientolo~g~' 1970," Hubbard X~TOte that Sdentolog~' would be planned on a ~ religious basis throughout the world. The letter con- cluded: "This ~ill not upset in any way the usual activi- ! ties of any organization. It is entirely a matter for ac- ~ countants and solicitors." i. /.: i.i ;! ii bi ? CHAPTER TWO THE CONTESSIONALS . . when matters o)t sex a~Ld perversion are introduced... as is/requently the case, they are discussed and probed and dwelt upon sometimes ]'or hours on end. The quality o/the filth and depravity recorded in the... [iles as being dE'cussed... aizzzost defies description. --from the Australia Inquiry The "Church of Sciente!o~," as they call themselves today, no longer claims to cure people of their emotional and physicM problems. Instead, they say it's people's spiritual weLl-being that concerns them now. The method is still basically the same, resemb'~ing a combLnation of psychotherapy and the Catholic Confession'although Scientolo~sts today emphasize their similarities with the latter. The be~nning Scientologist is called a "preclear"--someone who is not yet flee from his problems and diflSculties as is a "clear" Scientolo~st. The "preclear" reveals intimate details of his past and discusses his present problems with an "auditor," someone resembling a priest, who is frequently called Minister or Reverend in the Scientolo~' Church. During this Scientolo~' "Confessional," which is called "auditing" and sometimes "processing," the preclear holds onto two empty tin cans--usuaLly soup or V-8 juice----which are connected to a crude galvanometer Scientologists call an "E-meter." The preclear be- 27 28 T~LE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY licves that the E-meter works somewhat like a lie detector. He is told that it is a "truth detector," however. and hc therefore reveals increasin~y intimate details of his life to his auditor while holding on to the meter. There :*,re major differences between the Catholic and Episcc~F::lian confessionals and a Scientologist confessional. First of all, before they will audit him, the Scientologists make the confessor sign a release form swearing he v~ill never sue them. Second, the Scientologists charge people for the opportunity of unburdening themselves and they charge a great deal of money for this privilege. Third, the person has very little choice about what he "confesses" because he is asked certain questions repeatedly, such as "Have you done anything your mother would be ashamed to find out?" He must not only answer these questions but he must answer them fully and truthfully or else the "He detector" will give him away. Fourth, the intimate information he reveals to Ms auditor is not kept completely confidential. As many as ten people may examine these files, since a preclcar's records are available to all of his auditors (who often number five or six), plus the Director of Processing and occasionally the Ethics Officer, a type of internal police officer in the Scientology organization. In addition, Hubbard has access to these records. Portions of a preclear's files may be sent to the main Seientolo~ headquarters at Saint Hill so that Hubbard can review them for research. Finally, in addition to not always maintaining complete confidentialit3,, cases have occurred (and they are certainly the exception and not the rule) in which some of the auditors have also failed to maintain a proper professional relationship with their proclears. One reason for this may be the surprising physical intimacy that exists bern'con auditor and preclear. In at least one exercise that is part of the Seientology auditing, the audi-. tot and proclear are seated in chairs without arms, close together, with their knees intertwined. In other exercises the auditors may touch or move the preclear The Co~jessionc:!s 29 around, or touch his hands for several hours, moving them slowly in a circular motion, (an act which could surely become quite sensual after a long period of time). E~ical problems may have also occurred bec2use many of these auditors are only in their teens or early twenties. Teen-agers, wrote a ScientoloD' director once, "make the SWINGINEST auditors." Yet despite their age, these teem are supposed to remain objective and uninvolved while listening to what the Australian Inquiry described as "normal and abnormal sexual matters that are frequently dwelt upon in great detail and in an erotic manner." During these sessions, the proclear is encouraged to shed his inhibitions, and his reticence or reluctance to reveal the most intimate things may be disparaged. Scientology files have contained such statements as "pc (proclear) gets often the urge to move down to his sex organs. If he does that he gets restimutated." Or "pc has a bug about sending sexual beams at auditor," or even "pc disturbed because he came to have auditing and now wants to have sexual inter- COurSe." Apparently, it's not only the preclear that has gotten sexually stimulated in such an atmosphere. One male auditor wrote on his preclear's file that she was "sex3' as hell." In another case, the Reverend William J. Fisk (a Scientolo~zy Reverend) was conducting his Scientolo~ class in Seattle when Russell Edward Johnson, thirtysix, a carpenter and building contractor entered the room. According to the Seattle Times, Fisk shouted "This man is going to shoot me. Go get a cop. Please someone get a cop." But his plea was too late. With one bullet in his chest, fired by Russell Johnson, the Reverend was dead. During the murder trial 'it came out that Reverend Fisk, the one who was killed, was not only having an affair with Johnson's wife, but had revealed the fact to Johnson himself, boasting that Johnson's wife was completely under his control. The wife also told her bus- 30 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY band that she had been ha~qng an affair, and in fact, sued tim for divorce on the day before the murder. The wife, a mother of four children, had spent appro.,~matcly Sl.000 on Scicntology, and had been going for help with her marital problems. (If anyone is wondering x~hut nappc~,.e~i to Joimson afterxvzi'ds. forget what y{~u read in At~alc~ty o] a x~ittrder. in that book, a husband 'killed the man who had intercourse with his wife, pleaded "irresistible impulse" and went free. In this case, Johnson pleaded "temporat3, insanity" and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.) Other ethical difficulties may arise because the auditors are just hastily trained layman. Their backgrounds are not checked or investigated--they only answer a sin~ple true false questionnaire about themselves. According to a United States tax case, in Chicago, the (ScientoloD,) Reverend Justin a~eed to audit a woman for $1,000 on the condition that he could move into the house with her, her husband, and their three young dauZtters. After the Reverend entrenched himself lZ~mly in the home, the husband saw that the Reverend was upsetting his x~ife and asked him to leave. He refused. Nine months after he finally did go, the parents learned that the Reverend had secretly tried to see and possibly to remove txvo of their young dau~g..hters who were staying in a Girl Scout Camp. Girl Scout authorities stopped him and informed the parents. The parents still suspected nothing until one month later the Reverend was found wandering around the halls of the young ~irls' grammar school looking for the three of them. The authorities took him to the principal's office, found out what he was doing, and called the wife. Several months later, three United States Marshals came to the parents' home looking for the Reverend Justin, saying there was a complaint against him ehewhere for molesting little girls. CHAPTER THREE LIFE A_N'I) SEX IN THE ~X'OMB Plcc~ve pick t~p the somatic at tl~e bcginning and roll the engratn. --L. Ron Hubbard The purpose of Scientolo~' "auditing" or "processing" is to help the preclear get rid of his "endares." which Scientolojsts say are a type of impression imprin:ed on the protoplasm of the cell itself. Hubbard believes that , these endares are stored in the "reactive mind" (roughly comparable to Freud's unconscious) ~d that before a person can solve his problems, the endare has to be refiled in the "analytic" mind (in other words the conscious mind). By transferring the engrams in this manner, a person is supposed to become aware of his problems and is presumably able to resolve them. These engrams are said to have been recorded on the cells during moments of unconsciousness or extreme pain. In addition, they be~n to record not from the moment we were born, but from the moment we were conceived, sometimes earlier. Some ScientoloNsts are able to remember being a sperm or even the egg eagerly waiting to be met by the sperm. Thus it is obvious that Scientologists believe that many of our problems started long before we were born. Hubbard's theoD' never makes it really clear, at least in a manner that would be accepted by most medical doctors, exactly how engams can be planted before a foetus had developed a nervous 31 ,~ 32 THE SCANDAL OF SClENTOLOGY svstem or the sense organs which which to register an impression, or even how a person could retain or "remember" verbal statements before he had command of a language. Scientologists simply accept his theorx' on faith, that if a husband beats his pregnant wife and sht~uts "take that" as he hits lier, a "take thz~t" e:~gram can be planted in the womb. Thus, when junior grows up. he might react to this statement literally, and become a thief whose goal is to "take that." In fact. if you examine Hubbard's view of marital life as reflected in the case studies of his first book, you discover that most fathers spent a good portion of their marital fives giving endares to their unborn children by beating their wives while they were pre~o-nant with junior or while in the act of conceiving him. But the fathers weren't the only villains. Many of the mothers Hubbard depicted made Medea look hke the Madonna. ~,Vhen these mothers weren't being knocked up or knocked down by their husbands, they were usually giving their unborn children endares with AA (Attempted Abortion). Hubbard ~TOte that "twenty or thirty abortion attempts are not uncommon in the aberee," and there are so many attempted abo~ions in Hubbard's case histories that it sometimes seems to be a miracle that any of us got here at all. Those children who did make it thou~f'_.h, despite the attempted abortion, suffered later in fife, not only from the traces of whatever the mother used to try to abort hirn--usuaIly hitting needles ac~.ording to Hubbard--but because when he grew up, he was condemned to live with murderers whom he knows reactively to be murderers through all of his weak and helpless youth--because he could "remember" the abortion attempt. Readers should not be alarmed if they are unable to remember their fife in the womb, or conception. The earliest a non-Scientologist can remember, according to most doctors and psychiatrists, is approximately eiS~hteen months. Hubbard says that we can remember earlier, and one of the reasons we think we can't is---of Li/e and Sex in the Womb 33 course--aitempted abortion. "The standard attempted abortion case nearly always hz an infantho~ and childhood full of Mama assuring him that he cannot remember anything when he was a babx'. She doesn't want him to recall how handy she was, if unsuccessful. in her efforts with various ins'~rumcns. Possibly prenatal memory itself would be just ordinary men~orv... if INs guilty conscience in mother had not been rolling..." Hubbard also said that another reason the mothers encouraged the child either to forget or think they couldn't remember was that "Mama often has had a couple of more men than Papa that Papa never knew about." He also implied that this is why mothers might not want their children to go into Dianetics, so that as early as Hubbard's first book, where this appeared, Hubbard was saying that people who fought Dianetics had crimes that they were tr3ing to conceal--a theme which later becomes almost an obsession with him. When Hubbard's mothers weren't tO'ing to abort themselves, or being beaten, they were often having affairs. This situation could ~,fiso give the unborn child an engram, especially if the child in the womb was ultimately to be named after the father. Hubbard believed that many of these unfaithfifi wives made unpleasant remarks about their husbands to their lovers, and that junior, who was being knocked practically unconscious in the womb by the sex act, would "hear" these remarks and think they were aimed at him. It is obvious that with all the lovers trysts, attempted abortions, beatings, etc., life in the womb was no joy for junior. Hubbard wrote that there were even more prol> leEkS since there were "intestinal squeaks, groans, flowing water, belches" all making continual sounds for the foetus or embryo. It was also quite tight in there, a situation which was aggravated if the mother had high blood pressure. In addition, if the mother sneezed, the "baby gets knocked unconscious." If the mother ran into a table, "baby gets his head shoved in." If the mother was constipated, "baby in an anxious effort gets squashed." 34 ThE SCANDAL OF SCFENTOLOGY If the mother took quinine--presumably for an attempted abortion--the child could have a ringing sound in his ears throughout his life. And if the parents had intercourse, the child had the additional sensation of being put through a washing machine. Not only was the foetus or embryo supposed to be aware of the sc:~sation of intercourse between his p~ents, or whomcx'er, but the enFarn could record what they were sa.~ing as well. The following case was allegeally remembered by a preclear. GIRL: I wonder what they're doing? CI'hen a pause.) I hear a squishing sound! (Then a pause and embarrassment.) Oh! AUDITOR: Recount the en~am please. GIRL: Thoro's sort of a faint rhythm at first and then it gets faster. I can hear breathing. Now it's be~rming to bear down harder but a lot less than it did the first time. Then it eases up and I hear my father's voice: "Oh honey, I won't come in you now." . . . and my mother [says] "I don't want you in there at all then. You cold fish." When the parents have intercourse, it not only has an adverse effect on the child at the time, Hubbard claims, but the results could be quite dangerous later in life. Hubbard says that many patients remember having been raped by their fathers (Freud came across many such cases and recognized them as fantasies). According to Hubbard., a preclear who remembers being raped by her father may be right, only she may have been in the womb at the time. To show us how bad life in the womb really was, Hubbard tells us the story of a man who "had passed for 'normal' for thirty-six years of his life." Through Dianetics treatment, they discovered that while the man's mother was pre~onant with him, she had had intercourse seventy-six times with her husband (who was sometimes drunk) and her lover ("all painful because of enthusiasm of lover"). In addition, she masturbated eighty-one times ("with fingers, jolting and injuring Life and Sex in the U'omb 35 with orgasm"), and douched on re'only-two separate occ23ions. Like most of the other mothers, she Sso tried A~\ (Attempted Abortion) with twemy-m'o surjc-,,zl abortions, a couple of home-made jobs with paste and strong lvsol. a few desperate attempts bv jumping off n box. and on another occasion by having her husbz~nd sit on her stomach. In addition. she was cons:ipated fff'D.'-two times, had three colds. one case of ~_oTi.'ppe, one hangover, thirty-three cases of morning sickness, thirty-eight fights (presumably with her husbsd) which led to three falls, five incidents of the hiccups, ei~teen various accidents and collisions, nineteen ~4sits to the doctor, premature labor pains and ultimately twentymine hours of labor. And to top it all off, she talked to herself, which Hubbard says gave the man even more enFams to work on. Hubbard tells us that this man who had had all these awful things happen to him while in the womb, took 500 hours to cure. Hubbard also said he picked the case because it contained "the usual problems." It would seem that the endare sees ',,all, hears all, and re~sters even'thing, but sometimes it is incorrect. One auditor reported that a rash on the backside of his preclear--and it was not stated how the auditor found out about that rash--started when the preclear was in the womb and his mother frequently ask:d for an aspirin. The engam .was said to have accidentaNy misrccorded this as "ass bum." Ira Wallach, who wrote a book called HopalongFreud, poked fun at these theories in a special chapter he devoted to "Diapetics." Picture the mind as a refrigerator (gas or electric). Now diapetics demonstrates that part of the mind retains concepts not available for immediate use or analysis. These concepts have been frozen in the mind's ice tray. In another section of the mind we find the crisper. The crisper keeps ideas and concepts fresh, edible, and not too damp. (Green ideas should be left on the window sill for a few days.) 36 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY Controlling both the ice trc, v and the crisper is the dejrostcr. Wallach then poked fun at the "clear"--a Scientologist who has gotten rid of his endares and problems-calling him a "crisp." He called the "preclear" a "precrisp." In such a patient you will find the ice tray empty, the crisper full, and a dozen eggs behind the can of peaches. He is what we call in diapetics, a crisp... People who have not undergone therapy are precrisps... a person whose ice cubes have melted to the extent that they can be moved Mthout resort to hammer and s~ewdriver .... Thus we can see at a glance that Diapetics realizes a centuries-old dream: it is a science that explains the mind. CHAPTER FOL'R HAVE ~OU LIVED BEFORE THIS LIFE? It isn't a matter of believing or not believing you hca, e lived before. lt's a matter of remembering or not remetnbering you have lived before. --from "Have You Lived Before This Life," L. Ron Hubbard If the prenatal theories of Dianetics appeared startling to some, Scientology had something even more radical to offer--past lives--presented not as a matter of conjecture but as a matter of certainty. In addition to "remembering" their .life in the womb, Scientolo~.oists can "remember" the past lives of their immortal thetan or spirit, which is iaid to have lived in many bodies before ours. Hubbard used to believe that this thetan had existed for 74 ion years, but he now believes it's longer. One Scientolo~st claims he fell out of-a spaceship 55,000,000,000,000,000,000, years ago and became a manta ray fish after having been killed by one. This thetan, which is said to be one-quarter to two inches in diameter and blind or dimsighted at first, would look for a new body after each death, sometimes foliowing a woman who looked like she might become pregnant. Some thetans, however, had to go to "implant stations" to get a new body, and since there were more thetans than bodies, some of them had to queue up for as long as 22 million years just waiting. 37 THE SCAN~DAL OF SCIENTOLOGY Scientoto~sts believe that the past lives and deaths of their thetans are the cause of some of their problems today. For example, Hubbard thought it possible that somecne suffering from psoriasis (a SiLin disease) may have centracted it from the remains c.f the dies:ive fluid when the person (or his thetan) was being eaten by an animal in one of his past byes. If a person frequently clenches his jaws, or suffers from a pain there or in his tooth, it could be a vestige from the days that his thean was in the body of a primeval clam which was having trouble opening and closing its shell. Hubbard said that if the pain in the jaw was associated with a fear of failing, then the clam might have been picked up by a bird. Hubbard believes that millions of years ago many of us were this same primeval clam, which he calls a "BooHoo" or "Grim Weeper," and if a Scientologist walks into an auditing session and finds that he can't cry, Hubbard said it may be "because he is about to be hit by a wave, has his eyes full of sand, or is frightened about opening his shell because he is afraid of being hit." The auditor may try to cure him by making him "run the Boo-Hoo," that is, by getting him either to "imagine that his eyes are in his mouth looking out" or to go through the physical morons of cr3.'ing so he "connects" with the Grim Weeper or Boo-Hoo. Hubbard himself doesn't claim to have been a clam, but he does claim to have lived in ancient Rome a couple of thousad years ago, where he picked up a formula for feeding non-breast-fed babies. He has since passed this formula on to his followers in one of his may chatty newsletters. Scientolo~ts spend a great deal of time during their auditing sessions telking and resolving their past lives. One Scientolo~st was said to have gone into a state of grief when she realized she had been her father's lover --before she was born. Another ScientoloNst was concerned because his wife was now living with another man who had once been her husband--in one of her Hca'c You Lived Before This Life? 39 previous lifetimes. A Boston cab driver and part- lmn:e Har~'ard student discovered during an auditing session that his current headaches started when he was a Rom~ Centurion in 216 B.C., during the Battle of Carmac. He believes th2.t someone from the Roman BuriZ parD', mistakenly believing him dead, tried to kick his helmet back onto his head. Despite this insiZdat he still has his headaches, but this hasn't shaken his be- lief in Scientology. His faith didn't falter even when one of his Scientology friends, after spending hundreds of hours in the group getting rid of all of his engrams and : becoming a "clear" moved to Albuquerque and com- ;! mitted suicide. He attributed the suicide not to Scientol- o~', but to living in Albuquerque. Hubbard has devoted a special book called Have you Lived Before this Lije: A Scientific Survey just to past- life case histories of Scientologists. The preface of this book also contains the names and addresses of the peo- ple who took part in the experiment so that the cynical could check its facts. The names listed, however, were not those of the preclear who had relived the experi- ence, but those of the auditor who elicited the stories from them--and all auditors are advanced, dedicated and believing Scientolo~sts. Strangely enough, few subjects in this experiment thouZdat they had ever been famous in their past lives, except for one British man who was uncertain whether or not he had once been Lord Nelson. (The details of his death, without even a passing reference to his good friend Hardy, suggest that he was not.) A few people, however, believed that they had been 'animals before being humans in this life, and elsewhere, Hubbard told the story of a "psychotic" girl who recovered after she worked through an earlier life as a lion who ate its keeper. Hubbard also said that some intelligent do~ or horses might have once b~n generals or ministers of state who were taking it easy for a life or two to cure them of their ulcers. Most of the Scientologists who relived their past lives 40 TIlE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY believed that they had once been plain people, or x,erv often space people, and for plots, their histories read like a type of science-fiction sadomasochism. Many of the preclears believed that they had lived on other planets, and that the most unima~nably terrible things happened to them durir~g 'w'ars between worlds and celestial travel bern'con universes whose existence was not even suspected before Hubbard's time," said the Australian Inqui~. One preclear remembered that when he was in another life and was five years old he was "already on the lookout for brothels," by fourteen or fifteen had learned all about "sex and homosexuals," and by sixteen had killed his father, baby, and captain, breaking up the body of the last, before finally being taken away to the "Zap machine" where he was decapitated and his arms and body placed in a space coffin. One man remembered that when he was in another life he was a Roman soldier who strangled his wife with a cord, killed a slave, was beaten across the face with the handle of a chariot whip and then was himself killed by a lion in an arena. Accounts of other past lives included: one man who accidentall}' stabbed his pregnant wife in the stomach with clippers, thereby killing his baby; one who intentionally raped and 'killed his wife; and one who somehow accidentally 'killed his twelve-year-old daughter ~dth a pitchfork when he caught her having intercourse. A sexually neurotic woman who refused to open her legs during chLldbkth, so that her baby had to be born while she was lying on her side, traced her problem back to another life in which she claimed to have been tortured and killed by being cut with a knife "down the center of her gehitalia." Throughout Hubbard's book on other Hves there is a strange repetitive theme of torture or excision of the eyes, a theme that can also be found in some of Hubbard's other writings. One person said his eyes had been burned out with a hot iron brand before he had been stretched on the rack; another said his head had been Have You Lived Before This Life? 41 clamped into a metal frame ~rtd his left eye blinded with a hot instrument (and also his ear drums pierced): another said he pushed a needle throuS. h each of his cx cberths into the frontal lobe; and a fourth said that red hot irons had been thrust into trio cycs while he was chained to a cross. Just as a predear's life in the womb was p'ainful, so was S life before. A proclear may spend as man)' as fifty-five hours on just one past life, and often undergoes a Feat deal of mental anguish in reliving it. Throughout the book there are statements that people had "convulsive body movements," cried a great deal "at the loss of her body" (in other words, her death), or protested that "I can't go on." But go on they must. The preclear must obey his auditor when the auditor tells him to "be in ' that incident," and then 'asks him, "what part of that in- . cident can you confront?" The proclear must then repeat the story over and over again, lifting a new detail each time, discarding portions of the story that don't fit, and establishing with the E-meter the exact date that the past-life incident allegcdly occurred. Althohgh the proclear sometimes views this xvhole task with something less than enthusiasm, Hubbard was so elated with it that he wrote of his plans to write a sequel to this book, which was to be cared Wlzere I{'ere You Buried? He asked his auditors for help on this project by checking their preclears for recent deaths and then going to the place of burial and locating the grave and or getting the copy of the death roll from an official source. That this book never appeared may be attributed to a number of things. Perhaps Hubbard was too busy with his other books and projects. Maybe the auditors thought that such experimentation on a proclear was cruel. Possibly the preclear refused to "confront" the incident or give his pern~ission for the data to be disclosed. And finally, maybe when the past lives were actually checked out by goiag to the grave or official source, they were found to be fantasies instead of memories. CI~L,~PTER FiVE SPRL-~DLNG TIlE V~'OI{.D Tell someone about Scientology. .lust by knowing that Scientoiogy exists, a person is better. --L. Ron Hubbard Scientolo~sts are relentless in tr3,'ing to get others to share their reli~ous beliefs, and much of their proselytizing is certainly based on their sincere belief that Scientology has improved their lives and can do the same for others. But there are also a few mercenary toofives they rarely admit to. First of all, the more members a particular Church brings in, the more money each Scientolog3~ employee receives, since their salad'3,, based on units, is determined by the previous week's income. Actually this works out better in theory than in practice, since Scientolojsts have complained that when revenue increases, Hubbard simply enlarges the staff, so the}' get to see very little of the additional monies. A second possible reason for their relentless proselytizing is that for any i~ulividual member a Scientolo~st bring in, say a friend, he receives a five to fifteen percent cash rebate, usually ten percent, on whatever money that other person spends in the group. Even if a Scientologist decides not to double as a a salesman, he may not have much of a choice, since some Scientologists have been made to sign pledges promising to "help Ron (Hubbard) clear this planet." Pressure has also 43 THE SCA~"qDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY occasionally been applied to people who didn't help "Ron." One former member reported that Scientolo~ists were routinely questioned during their auditing ~essic, ns about their pro~ess in ~*urthering Scientology. If thex- had done nothing, they might occasion:~.llY be punistied by being made to write a five-hundred-word composition explaining why they hadn't spread the word. Hopefully, their techniques are a bit more sophisticated today. While Scientologists generally approach their friends and former acquaintances in an effort to gain converts, they are not averse to soliciting strangers. This is usually done by handing out leaflets or tickets inviting people to "step into the exciting world of the totally free." They have also used their books and brochures to lure strangers. One ~irl was approached on a Fifth Avenue bus ih Manhattln by a man who handed her Dianetics; The ,Uodern Science o[ Mental Health told her it would change her life, and then disappeared--or so she thou~2ht. When she trim to get off the bus, he blocked her ~'av and demanded $5 for the book. In another case, 14'o Scientolo~sts put an ad in the Village Voice asking Sl for a book "in a plain wrapper." Those who were expecting pornoFaphy were sorely disappointed. For S 1 they received a m'elve-page brochure called "All About Scient91o~"'--a booklet which is given away for free at the Or~ or Churches. Scientologists have also advertised their services in newspapers, under the heading of Church (in the New York Times) and sometimes in the classified telephone directories, under such headings as IQ Tests, Personality Development, and Personnel Consultants. In the classified Tunbridge WeB, Endand, area telephone directory, thouSja, they accidentally appeared under the heading of "Zoo." Lest anyone suspect it was an intentional accident, the phone company explained to the paper that the Scientologists asked them to put their ad on the last page of the directory "and in this case it was possible." Spreading the Word 45 Hubbard, in his P.&BS (Proclear Auditor Bulletin) -u-5 sug.gested three additional ways to disseminate Scientolo~'. In ~e first n~e~od he iold the Scientologists to put an ad in the newspaper saying "Personal counseling--I will talk to ~yone for you about ~.mything. Phone Reverend so and so between hour and hour." Hubbard, however, told then: not to t~cip the person who was calling, because that "cancel(s) out his clientele." Instead he su~ested that they should first credit the fact that "this is a pretty big problem" and then not talk to the person in such a way as to ease the problem. "This may be the last problem this person has and it would be a disservice to simply solve it as easily as that. One makes something of the problem, not makes nothing of it..." Hubbard may have anticipated that such methods might be questioned or criticized, and he seemed anxious that the press not find out who was behind them. He told the Scientologists: One does not bring the word Scientology into press interviews. One simply talks about the Church, its work and immediately it converses on actual cases which have been handled. I repeat, it does not discuss Scientology with the press. But what if the press suspects anyway, and then asks what Scientolo~' is? Hubb~d wrote: .. the minister should shrug and say there are lots of textbooks about that and that he does not propose to teach a course in an advanced science to pages of the public press [sic!I, that it is the Church and the church's charitable activities which are behind this, not Scientology. He should also say that today's ministers are indoctrinated in many learnings and skills and Scientology happens to be chiefest amongst these. The second method he suggested, which he and his current wife personally utilized, was called "IlLness Researchers." Hubbard told the Scientologists to place an THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY ad in the local newspaper that said p~lio victims (or arthritics) should call them. Hubbard suggested they sign the ad as a "research organization" or a "charitable organizarAon." x,x,.'hen the people answering the ad arrived at the headquarters. ti'.ev x~ere riven about three hours of free group auditing, and men later xx'cre s~:id indix4dual auditing sessions. This technique was not calculated to endear Sciento1o5, to the medical profession, but Hubbard emphasized that Scientologists were not offering a treatment or cure for these illnesses, but were just "investigating" them, and therefore the medical laws did not apply to them. He added that this method was acceptable for an auditor or minister, and that "even a ditch digger can look over polio or arthritis or asthma or an3~ing else." "In "Casualty Contact," the third method, Hubbard recommended that Scientolo~' ministers scan the newspapers for accident cases and obiru~,2a-ies and get the disabled and the relatives of the deceased to "join the Church for comfort." He said that the minister should take "every daily paper he can get his hands on and cut from it every story whereby he might have a preclear." The Ivlinister should get the address of the person, from the story itself or by calling up the newspaper and saying he's a minister. The minister should then call the person or his family and represent himself "as a minister whose compassion was compelled by the newspaper story concerning the person," wrote Hubbard. What if the press finds out about this one? Hubbard emphasized that the minister should ';simply say that it is a mission of the Church to assist those who are in need of assistance," and again avoid discussing Sciento-. logy. Instead, Hubbard said he should "talk about the work of ministers and how all too few ministers these days get around to places where they are needed." CI-L.~PTER SUe THE ORG Step into the Exciting Worm o/the Totally Free. --from a Scientology subway ad Once someone succumbs to any one of these methods, his first formal contact with Scigntolo~' is usually at the headquarters, or Org as they call it,~ior a free'lecture and film and a personality test, the first two to see if he wants Scientolog3'; the last perhaps to determine if he needs it. Each evening in Manhattan, a couple of dozen people arrive for this process at the main Org, which is located in the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Martinique at Thirty-second Street and Broadway. In the Scientolo- gy section of the hotel, the atmosphere has been de- scribed as similar to the Defense Department. Certain areas are off-limits, no pictures can be taken, and one xwiter was photo~aphed during his interview from everx' an~e "as if for a Wanted Poster." Another was told that her story had to be "checked for accuracy" be- fore the Scientologists would "permit it to be released." Another writer who brought a tape recorder to an inter- view was not only not permitted to use it, but --to add insult to injury--the Scientologists put on their own tape recorder and recorded him. And finally, no one can enter the Org until he writes down his name and ad- dress, in keeping x~th Hubbard's order to "register everyone--even the postman." : ,i.- 47 48 T}tE SCANDAL OF SCFENTOLOGY From the moment he re~eisters he may get as many as sevenS' pieces of mimeographed mail for as long as four yeas afterwards. l~,~ost of this mail lives up to Hubbard's statement that quantity is more important than quality. BegSrig the Scicntologists to ren~ove your name from the mailing list often does no good. The Australians reported that if someone wrote to have his name removed, the Scientolo~sts wrote them back suggesting that the meaning of their letter wasn't quite clear to them. One Manhattan actor who spent a weekend in kientology--and was immediately disenchanted because the night before the first course they had called him to take more courses--tried to make it clear that he did not want to receive the incessant phone calls and letters to which a Seientology friend of his had been subjected. The kientologists told him to tell this to the "Student Examiner," but when he did, he was hounded to reveal the name of his Mend. ~,Vhen he refused, he was "escorted" to the Ethics Officer, who again pressed him for the name of that friend who had complained about the phone calls so that they could "call him and talk with him about it." After the potential convert--or to quote Hubbard, the "raw meat"--registers, he is directed to a converted classroom to hear a kientology lecture that sounds like a cross between a Jehovah's Witness pep talk. about the Day of Doom ~nd the spiel of a t~sed car salesman. The lecture is apparently no better in England. During one lecture there, the audience cheered eveR' time someone had the courage to yawn or walk out. One man finally got up and said "ff ScientoloD' is so good, why are there not better lecturers?" He walked out to the loudest applause of the evening. After the lecture and sales pitch, potential converts are shown an old film of Hubbard and given the American Personality Test. This test was written by a Sciento1ogist with a B. Sen., D. Sen., and D.D. degrees. While someone looking at this quickly might think she is well 2't2e Org 49 qualified to v~Tite such a test with a Bachelor ef Science, a Doctor of Science degrees, her deuces actu~y stand for Bachelor of Scie~tzoio~', Doctor of Soientofo~oy, and Doctor of Divinity--in the Church of Scientoio~' only. The author also has a B.A, but that does not necessarily have an academic counterpart in Scientolc'~-y either. 6no Scientolo~st admitted that her B.A. s:ood for ~Basic Administrator" and '~Book Auditor." To become a '~Book Auditor" she only had to buy one of Hubbard's books, apply the principles to someone else, and send in for her certificate. Sometimes the results of the personality test are presented to a person not so much to enlighten him as to his difficulties and problems as to enlighten him about what Seientology can do for him. While analyzing the test, Hubbard told his followers to make remzks such as "Scientology can influence this" or '~auditing can remedy that," etc., and added '~We will take full advantage of the superstitions of people at the level of prediction." Hubbard also told them that they should not precede a statement that a score on a particular item was low with something like '~Don't won'),'" because %his cancels impingemeat." In addition to "enlightening" people, the tesz has also been used to intimidate them into joining Seientology. The Australian Inqu~' reported that one boy who took the test claims they told him he had a defective character, was mentally unstable, and would have a mental breakdown unless he joined Seientology. 6'I'ney also su~ested that he had homosexual tendencies.) When he refused to join nonetheless, people at the Org took turns for a year writing him personal letters to remind him of his difficulties as reflected on th~ test, and his need to join them to remedy it. After a person takes the test, he does not ':si~ up" for a course in Scientolo~'--he '~joins," as author William Burrou~s put it. Anyone who does decide to join the Church of Scientolo~' that night must then sign a contract, which has his name filled in even before he 50 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOG aFees tO look at it. "If a person is on x'our premises longer than five minutes sic_on him on a release form," wrote Hubbard. "If he won't siEm a release. he is ooin~, ~ - ~- ~ to give you trouble so get rid efhim." The form consists of a number of questions. and while answering an>' of them falsely can result in immediate dismissal later from Scicntolo~, answering them truthfully will not necessarily keep a person in. The following is a composite of the contents of a few of these forms over the years: 1) They ask ff the person has ever been institutionalized, had shock treatment, or been under the care of a psychologist or psychiatrist. 2) They ask ff he has "submitted" his body to drug treatment or is addicted to alcohol (Scientologists cannot take marijuana, LSD, etc., nor are they permitted to drink, or even take aspirin, for certain periods of time before auditing). 3) They ask ff the person will take and pay for additional courses or hours ff the ethics ofricer tells him to. 4) They ask ff the person is over l~x'enty-one (otherwise he needs his parents' consent to join ScientoloD'). 5) They claim that a person can get his money back ff he's dissatisfied with a Scientology course, generally within thirty days, althou~ he may not take any more ScientoloD' courses after asking for a refund. 6) They ask if the person has a criminal record. 7) If be is currently receiving medical treatment. 8) If he agees with the stated aims of ScientoloD' and will not work against it and if he belongs to a Zoup that is against it 9) That he aFees to undergo any E-meter test fiat he is told to take. 10) That he a~ees to "release each and all of the above-named organizations and corporations and any and all employees, staff members, or associates thereof from all liability from any consequences resulting from training, education, or processing practices and methods used by Scientolo~. After signing this, and paying for the first course, one becomes a Scientologist. And as Hubbard often says about that state of affairs, "May you never be the same again." Ct{APTER SEXiN TIIE SE~. OI{G L. Ron Hubbard, flanked by tlze power/:d, highly trained O.T. o] the Sea Org, has .iorged through gigantic barriers . . . has identified the true enetny of Mankind on this planet. --from a Scientology mailing piece Hubbard himself is never at any of these home Or~ an3' more. He now lives on the mysterious Sea Org. a trio of secret ships that sails the Mediteranean. Hubbard lives on the flagship, the Royal Scotsnlan (also called The Apollo), a 3.330 ton 320-foot converted Irish cattle ferry with LRH (L. Ron Hubbard) flofidly painted on the funnel. LRH or Hubbard, has the title of "Commodore" and his beautiful ~'enty-two }'ear old dau~ter Diana, who is also on board, has been ~ven the unlikely title of Lieutenant-Commander. Along with them are Hubbard's present wife, four of his seven ceildren from his three marriages, his dog, and W,'o cars. In addition, the Sea Org is a training fleet for at least 200 white-uniformed Scientologists and their children who range in age from six months to sixty }'ears. With the exception of the children, the rest are said to have signed a billion-year contract with Hubbard (presumably to include their thetans in future lives) to help him help the world. To accomplish this goal, Scientologists not only work for Hubbard gatis, but it appears that the3' may even pay to be on the boat, as many of them 51 52 THE SCANDAL OF SCIEN~!'OLOGY there are in training to become Operating Thetan VIII --the highest level in Scientolog3~, and to reach that level costs a few thousand dollars mere than it does to become a ';clear." Their dedication is reflected not only fmanci~ly. Sea Org Scicntologists work a difficult eight hour day and spend their evenings studying Scientolog~'. Even the children on the boat work for Scientolog~J as messengers. Life on board is hard, and punishment is strict. It is said that someone might be an officer one day and for punishment be sent to swab the decks the next The London Sunday Times carried an item about a wealthy Californian who was wearing an officer's uniform when he first arrived at the Sea Org, but for being late, he was given dirty blue overalls and made to work in the galleys. Although it's hard to fi~.~ure out why any country would complain about a ship full of hard wor-ldng people at her ports, at least one country was sufficiently displeased with them to kick them out of their herbour on twenty-four hour notice. In Corfu, Greece, where the Scientologists were said to be spending about S1500 a day for provisions and boat repairs, it would seem that the government had Little to complain about. But after seven months there, the Minister of the Interior kicked them out. He gave no reason except that they were declared ';undesirable." The country may have been displeased with the strange behavior of those living on the Sea Org. Local people complained about seeing Scientology children of eight or nine years old being made to walk the plank into the Aegean, and one ScientoloD' publication depicts a similar punishment that was meted out to an older member. (It is not known who saves them, but since Scientologists have jobs for everything--Director of Success, Letter Registrar, etc.--maybe they have a "Rescue Registrar.") On another occasion, locals reported that twenty-four Scientologists left the ship one day and marched half a mile along the quayside in "rail- The Sea Org 53 itar3.' step," wearing no raincoats despite the pouring rain. One outsider, Captain John Jones, reported to a London newspaper some of the things that happened while he was sailing with one of the smaller ships. ",Iy crew were skxteen men and four women who wouldn't know a trawler from a tramcar," he allegedly stated. He complained that he was made to run the ship according to the Sea Org Book and that electrical equipment, other than lights, radio and direction finder, and other advanced equipment he had on board could not be used. (Probably because the Scientologists feared it would interfere with the functioning of their E-meters.) He reported that "using the Org Book navigation svstem based on radio beams from the B.B.C., and other stations we were soon hopelessly lost." Mystery surrounds the ship. Hubbard is said to sleep during the day, rise at 6 P.M. and is almost never seen outside. Most of the people on the boat don't see him either, except for his personal staff and officers. The latter have meetings with him upon written request. Outsiders are not even sure exactly where on the boat Hubbard lives, although one reporter suspected it was in the middle of the upper part of the deck where "a corridor leads to what few cabins there are with a notice forbidding entry." It is said that most of the other people sleep in dormitory-like accommodations. Captain Jones, mentioned before, said the men and women on his ship shared the same quarters with only a blanket dividing the sections. Hubbard also keeps the purpose of the ship well hidden. Although he initially admitted that the Sea Org was established as a mobile headquarters for setting up new bases or correcting old ones, he now seems to want people to think they're all there for "exploration"--not Scientology. The stationery used by the ship is imprinted with "The Hubbard Exploration Company Ltd." (no address given). One spokesman for the ship said its purpose was "basically to search for oil and gas in the Mediteranean and elsewhere," and in one communi- 54 tHE SCAND.~I, OF SCIENTOLOGY qua, Hubbard stated the ship was in Greece "to explore and study the decline of ancient cixilization and so [learn] how this current one is goingY Hubbard has even denied to inter~%wers. in the earlier da~'s when he talked with them, that the ship or he was connected to Scientolog, althou~ Telex reports from Saint Hill were directly in front of him. Another mystery concerns Linda Hicks, a ver3' beautiful twenty-re'o-year-old British blond who joined the Sea Org and then disappeared. Her father, who had a heart condition, claimed that his only daughter had initially become involved with Scientolo~ in Las Palmas, and that when he saw her afterwards, "she... dyed her fair hair black... she was filthy, and her mind seems to have gone off the rails." The News o/the World, which printed the stor3', said that Linda allegedly sent the letter below to her boy friend at home, sa3ing she had been hypnotized on the Sea Org and had been married with- out conscious consent to another Scientologist. Darling Oscar So man), terrible tt~ings have tzappcned to me since 1 waved good-bye to you at Las Palmas. Oh why didn't you MAKE me leave that boat, Oscar? Did you know what was tzappening to me? l tzon- estl)' didn't know. t~zlt I/eel sick/or you in Las Pa.rmas--do yozt feel tidal way lor me now? Was it tzoliday ro~zance or will you always love me, how I love you? Darling--what did those people do to me. They cha~zged me, you... saw it, wh), didn't you make me leave? They make people's minds sick, they influenced me, they tried to make me change against you. I became sick and hysterical and they put me on one o/those machines [probably the E-meter] Then someone talked/or two hours to me. [The News of the World reported a reference here to her marrying one o/the boys on the boat.] I can't remember very much about it, except The Sea Org 55 that alter two days at Izome I began to clzange back to ttze old "~'Uummy" that .you toted a~,'d started to remember ti;.:~zgs--t]zcy v'ere eril. Oh t~:y darlitzg, ~chat a terrible miszake l ~: a,je . . . Aiter Linda's father saw this letter, he went to the Sea Org with a News o.i ti~c World reporter to ~rv to locate his daughter. But neither were able to boEd the ship, reach Hubbard, or find Linda. A Scientolo~st on deck said that Linda had had a "beautiful romance" with a fourth mate on the 414-1on Sea Org trawler, the Avon River. The next day, the Scientologists allegedly issued a statement to the reporter saying that Linda's parents favored another suitor and insisted their daughter leave her husband. They also stated that the parents wanted her removed and sent to a psychiatrist for electric shocks (a favorite accusation of the Seientologists), and that Linda, fearing kidnapping, left the ship and fled. They added that the parents "detest Seientolo~sts and tried to use Seientolog as an excuse to break up the marriage." What happens on the Sea Org may forever remain a mystery, since those on the ship stay for quite a while and have little or no contact Mth their friends and family back home. One story did leak out, however, that adds to the intrigue. It suggests that although joining the Sea Org may be voluntary, leaving it may not always be. ~,Vhen one of the Sea Org ships was docked in Corfu, the London Times reported that a number of people on shore had seen a female Seientologist and her two children attempt to run off the boat--screaming--and they then saw her dragged back in by uniformed Scientologists on the ship before she could reach the roadway. The harbor master in Corfu, a friend of Seientology, said he saw "no reason for an investigation." CHAPTER EIGHT THE BRITISH .AND AUSTR_~LLkN ORGS I1 Britain acts, then you must know that the hour is late. ---South African minister of health ur~ng their Parliament to have an Inquiry J In England, the main Scientolo~' Org is "Saint Hill," a 243-year-old fifty-seven-acre estate in East Grinstead, Sussex, that was formerly the home of the Maharaja of Jaipur, and before that, Mrs. Anthony Drexel Biddle. x,Vhen Hubbard arrived there in 1959, he joined right into the spirit of things, becoming East Grinstead's Road Safety Organizer. One paper reported that he artended only one meeting, telling how Americans reduce car accidents, and suggested they use schoolboy campai~tm patrols. After that, he sent his ideas through a local press office. During these early days, Hubbard was said to have gotten up at Hyde Park's Speakers Corner, to have grown giant radishes which he said had been exposed to X-rays, and to have invited a local journalist to Saint Hill to tell him of his theory that plant life can feel and think. If Hubbard really believed this, he apparently didn't care what the plant felt or thought, since he promptly attached the plant to an E-meter, stuck pins into the plant, tore off its leaves, and reduced it to a ruined stump. Unlike the plant, Scientology and Hub- 57 5 8 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY bard thrived in the mysterious manor. Scientolo~,, howe~'er, has not been accorded, or at least permitted, the same rcli~ous status in Endand as in America, since the British Registrar General refused to re~ster SaLnt Hill as a place of worship under the Place of \Vorship Re~stration Act. ("While ScientoloD' may be wholly admirable, I find it difficult to reach the conclusion that it is a religion.") So Hubbard has had to be happy with running a college, "controlling the operation," as he said in one interview, and sending his decrees, politics, etc., by Telex to his Orgs and franchises in five continents while collecting his ten percent and more. But thin~ began to sour, and some time after Hubbard left Endand to establish the Sea Org, he was barred from returning to the country. He says this was because the government didn't like his books. "I have committed no crime," he said, "except ~Titing about helping people to be happy. Mr. Caltahan [who probably barred him] doesn't like people to be happy obviously." ~',lthou~ the British did not seem to object to Hubbard's books-or to making people happy--many compla~ed about the Scientologists themselves, who were allegeally passing out their literature at Rugby matches held in aid of the blind, letting school children distribute Scientolo~, propaganda, and sending out letters solicitflag children from six to fourteen years old as members. Some of the biggest outcries against Scientology came from the town of East Grinstead, where ri~__.ht from the be~finning, the local residents were upset over the enormous number of people entering and leaving Saint Hill manor which was rejstered as a residence. But Hubbud, even three years after he arrived there, insisted he had only his personal staff at the manor and allegeally stated "I guess the[y] ... noticed all the traffic. There's been a lot of excitement here. I've discovered a kind of psychological treatment which would make people live twenty to m'enty-five years longer." The traffic increased and so did the antagonism. The The British and Australian Orgs 59 townspeople were worried that their children might become Scientologists, perhaps justifiably, since they and tt:eir children were constantly being soliciteJ to join, ~d Scientologists allegeally said they planned to make East Grinstead the first "clear town." Schoel officials complained that they couldn't even let the children go outside without encountering Scientolo~sts. Some complied that they didn't even have to go ozttside to be bothered by them. One nun stated that Scientologists entered her school grounds and tried to talk to the students. She-got rid of them once by mentioning the word "police," and on another occasion, she claimed, a Scientolojst put his foot in the door and she stomped on it. Some of the local residents complained that they too didn't have to go out of their houses to encounter the Scientologists, who supposedly called them at their homes and said, "I am your local Scientolo~st. Is there an.x-thing you need?" There were also some Scientolo~' scandals in the town: "death lessons" (to be discussed later) and a scandal in December of 1967, when a number of Scientolo~, children were picked up for shoplifting, and a girl who was taking a ScientoloD~ course was accused of immoral behavior. The News of the World, which broke the ston.', said that a fifteen-year-old girl who was taking a Scientology course was found asleep near East Grinstead with three men in a scrap metal truck. The next day, the girl allegedly admitted that she had had intercourse with three boys, once with a man she met at a youth club, the second time at a party where she said she got very drunk, and the third time with a ~-psy, one of the men found with her in the truck. Their being Scientolojsts or children of Soientologists may have had nothing to do with their behavior, but Scientology was condemned nonetheless. Another scandal in Endand which indirectly involved Sdentology occurred in 1964. At that time, two Scientologists, Mary Ann, an illegitimate dau~Jnter of a Scots mill worker, and Robert de Grinston, a Scientolo- 60 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY gist. met in Scientolo~,, married, and then left the Scientolo~' movement. They began their own group, which they called the "Process," although it was nicknamed "The Nlindbenders" by others. and inco;"porated a number of Scientology ideas. inciuc2!ng the E-meter. Instead of worshipping Hubbard. members of the Process worshippod Mary Ann de Grinston, and many of the members u,-uly believed she was God, a delusion that Mary Ann and her husband did nothing to discourage. Mary and Bob lived upstairs in their large home, above the other members who were li~4ng five to six to a room. When they came downstairs, the Sunday Telegraph in England described, "They descended like Gods. She was the resident dell3'. He her consort." Members were so anxious to please and emulate her, that when she bou~t an Alsatian dog, everyone else in the group did also. By 1966, the Process had moved, Alsatian dogs and all, to Mexico, where they were living in "paradise," according to them, w~th no gas, electricity, sanitation. water, or beds, at a cost of appro.'dmately $8 a day divided among fifteen people. In EnZ..land, the Daily Express estimated that over two hundred people had been involved with the Process at one time or another, and that at least three had suffered nervous breakdowns. Although the article in the Daily Express suggested fiat the group had dissolved, its obituar,Jr was written prematurely. On September 14, 1969, the Sunday Mirror in England reported that three Americans "with large dogs" were sailing on the Queen Elizabeth II to join the Process--now called "The Final Church of Jud~.o-ment." Apparently the Process is still thriving in England. Only now it is obviously Robert who is the worshippod one. He is called "The Christ of Carnaby Street." In addition to deifying him, the group worships Satan, Lucifer, Jehovah and Christ, who are all regarded as having equal status. The group also worships sex, and the Sunday Mirror reported that their magazine, The Process contained articles probing all types of per- The British and ,4 ustraIian Orgs 61 versions, stating "let no so-called sin, pen'e~ion and depravity escape your searching senses, participate in ull of them to overflowing." They also suggested a few, such as sex in an alleyw~y with people walking in the nearby street. intercourse with a cripple or halfwit. flagcitation, necrophilia. sex in a cemetery, and Black /Mass. which is to be finished by "Divine degredation." But one of the biggest Scientology scandals in England occurred in 1967. The Scientologists took a girl into the group, Karen Henslow, who had been in psychiatric institutions three times during her life (although the Scientologists claim they do not take people who have a history' of institutionalization.) Miss Henslow had a relapse while in Scientol%~~ (See Chapter 21) "'3 The British finally began to look into Sciento!e~' and ~, into the complaint letters received by the British Minis- ! try of Health..Mr. Peter Hordern, MP of Hersham, who X had originally brought up the case of Karen Henslow in : Parliament, asked the Minister of Health, then Kenneth i Robinson. to conduct an inquiry into ScientoloLv. A1- ~ though Robinson decided not to do so at the time, he ~! did make some rather unflattering statements about the Scientolo~sts. Robinson said that they "direct them- selves to the weak, the unbalanced, the immature, the rootless, and the mentally or emotionally unstable," and that their "authoritarian principles . . . are a potential menace... to the personality and well-being of those so deluded as to become its followers." Although he re- gretted that he had no power under the existing laws to prohibit the practice of ScientoloD', he said that "the government has concluded that it is so obiectionable that it would be right to take all steps within its power to curb its Forth." In return, the Scientolor:' newspa- per Freedom has made some rather unflattering state- ments about Kenneth Robinson and his association with the National Association of Mental Health, which they believe is part of a vast conspiracy against them. One step ~'~. Robinson took to curb the growth of 62 'THE SCAND:LL OF SC1ENTOLOGY Scien~olo~, was to make the "Hubbard Co~dege of Scientolo~-" no longer zu~ educational establishment. This meant that foreiders and CommOnwealth citizens could no longer enter England to study (or work) there. nor would those who were a!re:,d3 t~ere be ~ivcn exter~sions. David Gaiman, the Scientolo~v svoke~m:Ln in EngJand. c,~11ed fixis move "another exaTr~pi~ of ill-intentioned, diabolic, pompous, official bumbledora;" and said later, "~,Ve are certainly no worse than other m/nority Foups like Jehovah's Witnesses or Plymouth Brethren... at this rate [they] will turn around'tomorrow and without giving any reason ban Roman Catho-]jCS." Althou~ this policy of barring Scientolo~sts was rigidly enforced at first (and an enth-e planeload of American Scientologists was turned back), Scientologists report that enforcement has been rather lax lately. Perhaps that's because the British have decided to take even more drastic steps. An inquiU. into the kientolo~, organization is currently underway. The decision to set up this inqu~.' was announced in the House of Commons on January- 27, 1969, by Mr. Richard Crossman, Secretan' of Sate for Social Services, who also stated that Sfr John Foster, QC, would conduct the inquiry. In view of what was called in Parliament the "charac.ter assassinations" perpetrated by the Scientologists against those who have previously attacked them (especially in AustraLia, where the Scientologists were even said to have sent a~ents out after those who opposed them), Sir John Fosters job is not an enviable one. Mr. Crossman also stated at that time that Sir John Foster would take evidence for this inquir3.- privately, and that the witnesses would not b~ on oath. because the "kind of evidence we want wi//~ from people of a nervous nature, who will not face cross-examination or any public examination." The Scientologists countered this statement by sa)ing that if they wanted evidence from people of a nervous nature "thiz immediately pre,- The Brttistz a~wl Australian Orgs 63 ctudes Scientolojsts who are happy, relaxed, and purposeful." X~,:hile a private inquirS.'. with no cross-examination ,qr, d on oath. may not be in keeping with most people's idea of English ji~risprudence. Mr. Crossman explained why he chose an inquiry of this sort. It can be assumed ~at his final metaphor was an unintentional slur to the Scientolo~sts. Unfortunately, the choice is ver~' limited for the government. We either have to have a formal inquiry under the Tribunals of Inquir3' Evidence ... Act... or we have to have the sort which I have proposed. I thought that to use the former would be to take a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The Scientologists stated their opinion of this inquiry, and its nature. in Freedom. To take executive action against a Church UDanning Scientologists from coming into the country] and then seven months later hold an inquiry to provide, if it can be found, the evidence to justify the action is to find ~m2ilt ~4thout any trial... to accept gossip, privately and not on oath may be alright [sic.] to handle a problem in Bognor Rejs, but it is not ethical to conduct a private smear campai=~-n against 150.000 people in the British Isles . . . This is the way a witch hunt begins, this is the way a police state gets into operation, and this is the way in which men, Calla~an, Crossman and Robinson attempt to back up their poor faulty judFnent and faulty decision--taken in the full glare of worldwide publicity--because they haven't the Face to admit they were wrong in the first place. This is gross misuse of Ministerial Office. The article also implied that all this was part of a "conspiracy" against Scientology, and in a later issue of Freedom, they revealed who was part of this "AntiScientology Organization Chart" and "Electric Death Camp Utopia." They named seven countries with the National Association of Mental Health in the forefront 64 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY of almost all of them, and in Endand, they also implicated several members of Parliament, Dr. Russell Barton, a presti~ous British psychialrist, and the News o/ the H'orld and tire Daily ,Xlail. Both of these papers have written a number of negative articles on Scientolog-y and Hubbard. and a couple of issues cast doubt on both his qualifications and his sanity. The En~ish Scientolo~sts have recently made a number of moves to help polish their tarnishing image. They ended some of their more criticized policies, such as security checking and "disconnecting" (to be discussed later). They also opened Saint Hill Manor to outsiders, for what David Gaiman said would be "rather like a vicarage tea party." He promised donkey and pony rides for the children--and Scientology films and cartoons for the adults. John McMasters, the first clear (who is also Hubbard's very eloquent personal spokesman), would speak, and soft drinks (no alcohol) would be served. David Gaiman stated that Mr. Robinson was invited, but that he wrote saying he was unable to attend. In addition, kientolo~sts have actively started promoting Dianetics again, perhaps in anticipation of a prohibition of Scientolog3', or possibly to partially dissociate themselves from kientolo~, while it is getting negative publicity. Although Scientolo~sts have boasted that the publicity has actually helped them, certain thin~ suggest that while this may have been true initially ,(and there may have been an initial influx of curiosity-seekers who came to find out what all the fuss was about), in the long run the publicly' may not have done them much good. One would expect that if it really had increased their number, the Scientolo~sts would be anxious to identify themselves and their services with the group that was getting the publicity. Instead, they are now emphasizing Dianetics. Last summer, there was no mention of Scientology in their entire Tottenham Court Road bookshop and the only books and si~s around were about Dianetics. (The kientologists, how- The British and A ustraliatt Orgs 65 ever, seemed to have forgotten to pull down their markee. which said "Scientolo~'" on it.) The3' are also attempting, perhaps, to ~4n back some of their critics, such as members of the medical profession. Toward this last goal. one recent issue of Freedom, which for the first time promoted Dianetics instead of Scientolog~..', said that people who are sick must receive medical attendon before starting on Dianetics. Howe~'er, the statement that "Dianetic Counsellors work very closely with Doctors in England" would perhaps make man}' doctors livid. Scientolo~sts have reason to be concerned fight now. If the British InquiD' has the same results as the Australian one (and it could be even worse for them, since at the Australian Inquiry, Scientologists were permitted to be present, witnesses were on oath, and they were cross-examined), Scientolo~Ey could be banned in England as well. Scientolo~sts are understandably bitter about the Australian Report. It is an incredible denunciation of the Scientologists, and even says that they have "no worthwhile redeeming features." Almost every paragraph of the report is a criticism. x,~qqere evidence could perhaps have been interpreted equivocably, either for or against them, it was consistently interpreted against them. Hubbard is extremely hostile to the report. According to the Sun, in England, he claims he was forbidden to appear at the Inquiry, and that no testimony or witnesses on his behalf were heard. According to the Inquiry, many of the witnesses were Scientologists and the Szientologists were represented until they voluntarily withdrew. The Board also claimed that they repeatedly invited Hubbard to attend but that he failed to do so. They felt he stayed away purposely so as to have something to criticize the Board for. They also believed that he didn't appear because if he had taken the stand and repudiated his writings, he would have appeared deceitful, and if he had not disowned them, he stood "condemned by their content." Hubbard, by the way, has 66 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY been invized to testifi.' at the British Inquiry. So far be has failed to show. Scientolcgists believe that they were condemned in Australia because various prordinent witnesses "connived to produce hostile evidence." Furthermore they claim tlnat only four witnesses said Scientology hadn't helped them, and that they have "affidavits" which show that "one of these was a blackmailer, the second a professional car thief, the third was brainwashed by the first re'o, and the last was intimidated by terrorism." Since 151 witnesses testified, the Soientolo~sts argue that if only four people said Scientolo~ hadn't helped them, Sdentology is 97.351 percent effective. They also ar~e--although they claim they are not a form of therapy--that psychiatry is only m'elve percent effective ~th eighty-eight percent "maimed for life or dead." Actually the Scientolo~sts may be correct in stating that on/5' four people specificall), stated that Scientolo~, hadn't helped them, but a number of witnesses said things abut Scientolo~oy that made them look a lot worse than that, and a great deal of written testimony was in*~roduced that was even more dama~ng to them than the verbal statements. In addition. among the 151 people that Scientolo~sts said were helped by Scien- tolo~', many were expert ~tnesses in science, physics, medicine, psychiatry, etc., who presented evidence, more often a~ainst than for Sciep. tolo~'. (The reader also should not get confused over the Scientolo~sts' numbers. One hundred fifty-one witnesses gave testimony at the Australian Inquiry and this was explicitly stated in the report. The Scientologists seem to think it was 155, became they keep talking about the 151 witnesses for kientolo~' plus the four against it. Some of their other arguments against this Inquir-5.- also suggest that those who are most outspoken against it, did not read it very careful/y.) Finally, the Scientologists also aL. eue that the report'is unfair because the psychiatrists who testified'against The British at~ Australian Orgs 67 ScientoloD' were incapable of jud~dng it inasmuch as thev had never personally treated a Sdentolo~st. But Scibntolo~sts are not permitted to undergo psychiatric treatment, so few psychiatrists would have had the opportunity to treat them. In addition. many of fi~ese psychiatrists read transcripts or descriptions of sessions so thev had something to base their opinions on. (It appears 'fiat some may have also watched the sessions throuo_.h a two-way mirror.) And finally, to say that psychXatric opinion on the merits of a certain t).'pe of treatment is worthless because the psychiatrists hadn't personally treated the person involved is not much different from sa)dng that a ballistic expert cannot be called in a court trial because he didn't personally know the man who shot the gmn. One thing no one can argue about--a lot of testimony was produced. Ke~in Andersen, QC, now Justice Andersen of the Supreme Court of Victoria spent 160 days listening to four million words totally 8,921 pages of'testimony, or, as the Scientolo~sts put it "not much shorter than the Nuremberg trials." Some of this was condensed into a veD'-difficult-to-obtain (fortunately for fie Scientologists) 201-page report, which makes repeated references to the depra~dty and perversions they claimed existed in the Scientology movement. (It also keeps promising that more information on this will be included in Appendix 19, and so the fingers eagerly fly to the back of the report only to discover with much sadness that there is no Appendix 19. It was not includ- because the various members of the government con~ Xiddered it to be "obscene.") "'~ On the basis of the testimony, the report concluded I that "Scientology ks e~il; its techniques evil; its practice ! a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill." The Victorian Parliament accepted Andersen's conclusion that Scientology was the "world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which 68 THE SCAND_-XL OF SCIENTOLOGY masquerade as mental therapy," and passed the 1965 "Psychological Practices Act." This Act, among other fl~ings. makes teaching ScientoloD'. applying it. or even adve~sing it punishable by up to S500 a_nd two years in jail. But Sciento!oD' seems to be making a comeback in Victoria right now since they are holding "reli~ous services" for approxin~ately sixty-five people a week in an unmarked house that is said to contain a "chapel," along with the usual pictures of Hubbard, books by Hubbard, Scientol%%, charts--and a small box in the entrance asking for donations for Scientolog3, expansion. CHAPTER NINE ATTACK~PNG TIlE ATTACKEIt$ People who live in tin houses shouldn't throw can openers. --L. Ron Hubbard The Scientolo~sts have not taken any of their a~acks or setbacks lightly. Although the Church of Scientology creed states that "all men have the Hg~ht to think freely, to write freely, their o~m opinions and to ceunter or utter or write about the opinions otF others," in the past, this has not applied to anyone who wished to think, speak or write against Scientolog. Many newspapers and magazines in America, England and Australia which printed articles on Scientology ran into legal problems with the Scientolo~sts, and in Endand it was estimated that fifty-eight writs had been issued by the Seientologists. Mr. Peter Hordern spoke out against this in Parliament in March of 1967. saying: "The public has been hampered in the }mowledge of kientolog3' by the fact that so far as I can establish, on every occasion that the organization has been named by a newspaper, that newspaper has been ser~'ed with a writ for libel." In September of 1968, the SeientoloNsts issued a writ of libel on him. Obviously this stifles freedom of the press, and the kientologists have admitted that they will "sue at the slightest chance" to discourage the media from mentioning Seientolog3'. Hubbard wrote: 69 70 THE SCAND.-%.L OF SCIENTOLOGY We do not want Scientolo~' to be reported in the press anywhere else but on the reli~on page of nexvspapers. It is destructive of word of mouth to permit the public press to express their biased az~d t~aj*.y reported sensationalism. Therefore we should be very alert to sue for slander at the sligh:est chance so as to discourage the public press from mentioning ScientoloD,. Scientolo~sts are quick to sue not only those who write against them, but also those who speak against them, and some of their suits have been contradictory and amusing. When Dr. Russell Barton (the British psychiatrist mentioned in the previous chapter), spoke out against them on a television progain, he received a letter suing him for the statements he made "on February 31st." If the Scientologists had acted with less haste, perhaps they would have had time to remember that there are only twenty-eight days in February. In another case, the Scientolo~sts had several outstanding ~Tits against some of the members of the East Grinstead Council, but approached them nonetheless for help in a housing development. In a third case. after serving a writ of libel in England on Geoffrey Johnson Smith, they asked Smith for "support and advice" about a housing estate they wanted to build in East Grinstead. This last case by the way, one of the few that Scientologists ever took to court, had some recent disastrous effects for the' Scientolof~sts. They lost this libel case on December 22, 1970, and were ordered to pay court costs that are estimated at close to S200,000. The Scientolo~sts attitude toward litigation is in keeping with Hubbard's philosophy that "the DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK." Fortunately for the press, they have decided to start attacking other institutions, and they withdrew thirty-eight of their cases against newspapers in Endand in November of 1968, "in celebration of the fact that we now 'know who the enemy really is." Not that their suing policy is over. In Attacking the Attackers 71 fact. on September 30. 1970, it was reported in the No,, )'ork Post that tile Scientologists were suing Delacourt Publist~ers and author George Malko for a book they did on Scicmology. (The Scicntologists also ar. nounced that riley had hired Nlelvin Belli. the famous fiambo\.~nt attor~:\ who once unsuccessfully defended Jack Rub3' lot their case.) But in addition to s,aLng the press. the3, are nov' also suing psychiatric org~.,mizations, and they claim to have filed, or be about ready to file, over S75 milIion worth of law suits in that depm-tment. In addition to suing those who attack them. Scientolo~sts have subjected their enemies to a campai~ of vilification. Members of Parliament who have spoken out against them have been accused by the Sciento',ogists of bribery, corruption. and even "of following the order of a hidden foreign group that... has as its pu~ose seizing any being whom they dislike or who will not agee and permanently disabling and killing them." And to support their suspicions about people who attack them, the Scientologists have hired detectives to inv'~stigate these people. Hubbard wrote that since ScientoloD, had found out fie basic fundamentals of man and the universe, "How much easier then to find out the secrets or histories and motives of one person or group?" In that same pamphlet, "Why People Fight Scientology," he also claims that the3, have "investigated thousands of such protesting persons." Lest an outsider get the wrong idea, Hubbard elsewhere assured them that ScientoloD' was not a "law enforcement agency." But, he added, they would become "interested in the c,'imes of people who seek to stop us. If you oppose ScientoloD, we will promptly look upland will find and expose 3,our crimes . . . those who try to make life hard for us are at a risk." One type of investigation Hubbard sugges:ed wijs'! what he called "noisy investigations." He wrote in 1966 i that if someone gave ~ientolog3.' trouble, "find out where he or she works or worked... and phone 'em up and say 'I am investigating Mr./Mrs. for criminal ac- 72 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOOI' I tivitie's and he/she has been tr3.'ing to prevent man's ! freedom and is restraining my reli~ous freedom "~_nd that of my Mends and children, etc.'" " But it appears that the Scientolo~sts' investigations are not confined to phone calls. Thev have made~no attempt to hide the fact that they have hired detectives to investigate their "enemies." As earl}' as 1955, they wrote in .4biliO,, one of thek newsletters, that they had hired a detective to investigate and "disclose any criminal past or connection" of the editor of a British Dianefie magazine. During the New Zealand Inquiry into Scientolo~, it was also revealed that the Scientolo~sts had placed an ad for an investigator in one of the local 'papers. The man who answered the ad later told the In- quiD.' that he was told his job would be to check on people in New Zealand and Australia to see whether they had criminal convictions, debts or troubles. He claimed he was also asked whether he had any objections to investigating la~3,ers' medical men or people in govern- ment circles. The Scientolo~sts also allegedly put an ad in the Daily Telegraph for investigators, and were prepared to hire three of them for about S80 a week plus the use of a car. One man who answered the ad, Vic Filson, an experienced private detective, told the newspaper that he was first inten%wed by being made to take an E-meter test, during which time they repeatedly asked him, "Who sent ,you here to spy on us?" Later, when they were apparently satisfied with him, he was allegedly told that his job was to investigate the activities of English psychiatrists and .prepare a dossier on each. The memo, which was reprinted in People, a British paper, read: "We want at least one bad mark on ever>, psychiatrist in Endand, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one . . . This is Project Psychiatry. We x~q. LLl remove them." Fitson was also told that his first job was to investigate Lord BaNel, then Chairman of the National Association of Mental Health--and one of the men who had asked Kenneth Robinson to investigate Scientol%oy. Attacki~g the Attackers 73 The reason the Scientolo~sts may have investigated those who have spoken out against them is that thcv firmly believe that those who attack Scientolo~' are committing crimes themsalves, which the3' are afraid the Scientoio~sts will discover. Hubbard said that if someone called Scientolo~' a "cult" or a "hoax." what they were really saying is "please please please don't find me out." Hubbard also said that ff someone urged a Scientolo~st to leave the goup or told him not to study Scientology "it should be answered by no praise of ScientoloD' but by asking 'What have you done?' and demanding that the protesting person go to the nearest [Scientology] center for a case assessment." Hubbard suggested one simple, perhaps simplistic way to uncover a person's crime with the following sample dialo~e: George: Gwen, ff you don't drop Scientol%o~.' I'm going to leave you. Gwen: (savagely) George, what have you been doing? George: What do you mean? Gwen: Out with it. Women? Deft? Murder? What crimes have you committed? George: (weakly) Oh, nothing like that. Gwen: x, Vhat then? George: I've been holding back on my pay. Sometimes the "crimes" are less innocent than that. Hubbard ~TOte: Politician A stands up on his hind legs in Parliament and brays for a condemnation of Scientology. ~,Vhen 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 abut. Another reason Hubbard believes that people attack Scientolo~Sr (in addition to hiding their own crimes), is because Scientolog'y is honest, aboveboard and works. 74 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY In what must surely be the strangest reasonin~ ever, Hubbard wrote: "If Scientology was fraudulen~t. if it had vast but covert plans, ff it did not work, it Would not be fou~..ht." Finally, Hubbard hinted that harm would c~me to those who fought Scientologylal~ough, of course Scientol~ogy would not in any way contribute to ~eh- disasters. Hubbard wrote that "no serious harm came to any principal or good person in Dianetics or Scientolo- g3'." But on the other hand, "without any action being taken against them, of twenty-one hio~n/y placed attackers, seventeen are now dead." If this seems hard to believe, the way in which people wko are against Scientology will suffer is even harder to accept. Hubbard wrote: I once told a bill collector what and who we were and that he had wronged a good person and a haft hour later he threw a hundred grains of veronal down his throat and was lugged off to hospital, a suicide. CHAPTER TEN THE SUPPRESSIN'ES People don't deserve to hare Scicntology as a divine right, you know. They haw to earn it. ~L. Ron Hubbard Even worse tban what happens to an outsider who tries to attack Scientolo~' is what happens to a kientolo~st who turns against or displeases the group. They too may be investigated, although in that case the investigation is quite simple. The Scientolo~sts can go right to the preclear's file and his intimate secrets and confessions are all there. Furthem:ore, Hubbard made it clear that he wanted these secrets. "If anyone feels like leaving," wrote Hubbard "just examine the records and sit down and list ever3thing done to and x~thheld ~om me and the organization and send it along. We'll save a lot cf people that way." In a Poetic3' Letter of April 19, 1965, Hubbard also laid down similar guidelines. "An3, preclear blox~ing an Org [getting up and leaving] Mthout reporting to the [Technical] [Secretary], [Director] of [Processing] and the Ethics section first, and who will not permit an auditor to handle the matter at the Org where the auditing occurred, must be fully investigated by the Ethics section at an3' cost." The following is a letter Hubbard wrote to the Secre-tary of the Melbourne Australia headquarters about a 75 76 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY boy who apparently "blew an Org" i.e. left, or did something equaIly heinous: Homer blew up in our faces and had his cert[ificate]s canceled. \Ve have criminal backFound on him. Rape of a girl pc [proclear] in Dallas and countless others. Ihis will do something to [name omitted]. Now I firmly believe you will be able to find a criminal backFound this life on [two more Australian Scientologists] as no such occurrence anywhere in the world has failed to find one. I'd grab him when he comes in and security check it in to view. Run one on [two names out]. If they won't cooperate you have suspected criminal activities. It's a thrupenny push now. Horher... possibly Nibs--all tie in to a neat network. ~,Ve're pulling it apart. This same Homer, the one who allegedly raped a preclear, was once such a dedicated Scientolo~st that he ~Tote a book on the subject, and in it referred to Hubbard as "one of the ~eat geniuses of the Twentieth Century" whose "discoveries will make possible a new era of li~ing for man." In addition, the man referred to above as "Nibs"--whom Hubbard apparently saw as part of this "conspiracy" or whatever--is the nickname for L. Ron Hubbard Jr., Hubbard's o~3n son, who was a Scientologist until he quit in 1959. The AuStralian Inquiry which reprinted that letter, also had a ~ew comments on the veracity of the statements: It is now said that accusations against Horner of "criminal background" and "of the rape of a girl pc in Dallas and countless others" were unfounded .. Subsequently... Homer returned to the fold and when last heard of was a leading over-seas Scientologist who probably would be extremely surprised to know of his "criminal background" so irresponsibly publicized by Hubbard. There was no justification for the [other] accusations . . . Hubbard was merely irresponsibly asserting, as was The Suppressires' 77 his practice, that anyone out of line with Sciento!o~gy had a criminal or communist or homosexual back- ~ound. It appears that few other Szientolo~sts have gotten out of iinc or spoken against their group though. perhaps because one of the Scien:ology codes stated that no member was permitted to speak dispara~.ingly of ScientoloD' to outsiders or members of the press. This seems to work both ways, and in addition to not spentLing against ScientoloD', Scientolo~sts rarely listen to ar~_~uments against it either, and have little oppommity to hear both sides of the stor3'. In fact, Hubbard told them never to discuss Scientolo~ with a critic. "Just discuss his or her crimes, 'known or unknown. And act completely confident that these crimes exist. Because they do." As a concomitant to this, Scicntolo~sts rarely participate in panel discussions, perhaps because of their aversion to confrontation with critics, but aho because Hubbard wrote them "why... Dve some other subjects an audience before which it could air its views?" Most Scientologists are anxious to adhere to this code and not speak against ScientoloD,, so much so that when one alleged Scientolo~st committed suicide in EnS. jand, he left a note saying his suicide had nothing to do with ScientoloD' or with his being a member of the group. (Later on, another case will be presented of someone who wanted to comfit suicide, but was afraid that if he did so it would 'invalidate ScientoloD-.") But in the past, if a Scientologist did decide to say something against ScientoloD', perhaps to publicly disavow it or report or threaten to report it to civil authorities, he was immediately declared a "suppressive person" and sometimes an "enemy of ScientoloD'." A "suppressive person" was immediately dropped from ScientoloD' and no Scientologist in the world was permitted to associate with him. (Perhaps this doesn't seem like much of a punishment to the reader, but remember that the Scientologist has often withdrawn from his former friends and family and spends his time mainly with Scientolo- 78 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLC ~sts. He may not have a job to go to since he max' hr left his job to work for the Org, and he may h.~ve . vorced his former spouse and roman'led someone in t ~oup----none of the people can have anything to , with him.) At variot:s times the Scientolo~sts have tre2.ted su pressivcs in an even worse manner. In 1965 they wrc that the "homes, properties, places and abodes 'of pe sons who have been active in attempting to suppro ScientoloD, or Scientologists are all beyond any prote tion or Scientology ethics." In an earlier code it said ' pledge myself to punish to the fullest extent of my pow, anyone misusing or degrading Scientology to harmf ends." At one time an enemy of Scientolo_,3, was d, ~, fined as someone who could be "deprived of property < injured by any means by a Scientologist . . . may I: tricked, sued. lied to or destrovedY , Anyone who was "connected" to a suppresslye, i other words, anyone who knows him, no matter ho, vaguely, was "reviewed"--and had to pay for this re view. If it came out that he was indeed "'connected, this friend or acquaintance was declared a "Potcnti~ Trouble Source" (P.T.S.), and also could not receiv Scientology processing until he "handled" in othe words, persuaded the errant person to make amends, o "disconnected" from that person, meaning that he to< could have nothing more to do with the suppressive even if it was his spouse, lover, child, parent. etc. Th~ P.T.S. also had to publish the fact in one of the Scientol. i ogy publications, and then take "any required civil ac- tion such as disavowal, separation or divorce." Since the P.T.S. was not permitted to talk to the suppressive, he usually disconnected bv sending him a letter, usually on little scraps of paper ~nd sometimes simaed off with "love," stating that he could no longer hag an%thin~ to do ~4th the suppressive, and implying or statind that'the suppressire reconsider and reform himself--which meant taking more Scientolo~, courses. If the P.T.S refused to "disconnect" from the suppressive, tie was ay The Suppressires 79 ve charged with "high crimes" and became a "suppressive ti- person" and outcast also. he A person did not have to be a Scientologist to be sup'to pressive. in the New York Org the night watchman was said to have been declared suppressive for rr. isdeeds > that ranged from stea2ing from the petty cash box to te saying that Scientology didn't work. Nor does ~e supr- pressive have to be an adult. One ten-year-old boy was ss declared a suppres.sive--because he refused to "disconnect" from his father. 'I Mother ScientoloD, "suppressire," now an outspoken critic of the group, called Scientology "the beghanings of a Nazi party" in court, during an American tax ,.- case. Mr. Raymond J. D. Buckingham, a very accomr plished EngLish basso who administers a voice school in e Manhattan, initially got into Scientology through one of his pupils. She agreed to ~ve him $30 worth of processrt ing in return for an equal amount in voice lessons. At first he was so impressed with Scientology that he con, vinced several of his students, along with his fianc6 to undergo auditing. But he began to get disillusioned I when he discovered that kis auditor was revealing per . sonal information about him to a friend of hers, and r worse still that his fiancd's auditor (a Reverend) wa~ propositioning her. When he complained about the situation to the Scientologists, however, they said they would speak to him about it only if he would agree to pay them S25 for the first session of "ad~:xceY He ageed, but they then said they wouldn't talk to him unless he "disconnected" from a business parmer. It seemed that the Scientologists had also labeled the partner a "suppressive person" because he was connected to a suppresslye. Buckingham then had the incredible courage to speak against Scientology on a radio show, and the Scientolo~sts countered by declaring him a "suppressive person, outside their protection," and "fair game." Those of his students who had become Scientologists (at his recommendation) were ordered to "disconnect" from him--and also from any money they 80 'HIE SCANDAL OF SCiENTOLOGY legally owed him. (This represented a loss of about S200 a week for him.) One of his students, a amous singer, in whom he had invested almost $30,000 as her agent, told him that she had learned in her auditing sessions that "you killed me in my past fifteen lives." Then she no: onl\ disconnected from t,jm, but also from the arrangen:ents he had made for her to, perforn: in summer stock theatres. The loss almost ruined him, and her as weN. since she was fined by Actors' Equity and left the country. During this time, he was also receiving phone calls in the middle of the night from men and women threatening to kill him. And his fianc6, who at first didn't leave Scientology and join him, was hdd in a room at the Org for four hours until she agreed to sign a statement saying that Buckingham had threatened to kill her. The story does have a happy ending. Three in fact. Mr. Buckin2..ham and his finned eventually did get married. The ten-year-old child who was declared suppressive four 3'cars ago is now one of Mr. Buckinr_ham's voice students. And all three have left Scientolo~'. (Scientolo~', however has not left them, and they still receive mail ur~ng them to "step into the exciting world of the totally free.")' Two other stories of Scientolo~sts who left the group did not have such happy endings. In the first case, the Director of the Scientology institute in Bulawayo, Africa, a man named John Kennedy, was said to be responsible for tt~ success of Scientolo~' in Rhodesia. Naturally Hubbard was pleased with him, and in an early issue of Ability, he wrote that Kennedy and his wife "both 'knew which side of the E-meter is up, they respect you, they are Scientolo~sts, they have goals." Unbeknownst to Hubbard, one of their goals was leaving Scientoiog3' and setting up a similar organization called the Institute of Mental Health. They set up headquarters in Johannesburg, and brought in a large number of Scientologists with them, namral_ly infuriating the other Scientologists. Kennedy died shortly thereafter in a shooting accident. "It is said he shot himself The Suppressives 81 accidentally while cleaning his revolver" stated the Daily Mail on July 14. 1968, "but an open verdict was returned by the coroner." Anothel ease of someone who displeased the Scientolo~ists is shrouded in rayslet3' and will probably always remain so. According to the London Observer, James Stewart, a thirty-five-year-old encyclopedia salesman from SOuth Africa was suspended from Scien::lo~' because the Scientologists allegedly said he had a "history of ei~Hepsy and as such was refused permission to continue Scientology trig." Robert Kaufman. a former Scientologist (whose own story will be presented later) was at the Edinburgh Org at the same time as Stewart and reported some thin~ that happened that were not printed in the newspaper. He believes the Scientolo~sts placed Stewart's* name on the bulletin board and put him in a "condition of doubt" for having seizures or fits in public and thereby "invalidating Scientology." Kaufman was. horrified that someone would be punished for a physical ailment over which he had no control, especially since the "doubt penaky" meant this ill man would have had to work at menial chores for eighty hours straight without sleep. A few days after the man was placed in "doubt," Kaufman was even more u~met to see the man's funeral and cremation notice posted on the bulletin board. A short while later--Kaufma-n believes it was the afternoon he saw the funeral notice--Kaufman was more shaken when it was announced that the deceased's wife had just gone up another (very high) level in Scientolo~'. Kaufman's suspicion that the eighty-hour penalty was connected to this man's death was heightened when he returned home and one of his Scientology instructors told Kaufrnan that he had heard * Kaufman is not 100 percent certain of the man's name but believes that it was Stewam Stewart and Kaufman were in the same Org at the same time. In addition, it certainly seems that the man whose name Kaufman saw on the bulletin board was Stewart, because it would be extremely unlikely that two men in the Edinburgh Org at the same time, with their wives, were both suffering from seizures, and both died at the same time. THE SCAND,~L OF SCIENTOLOGY that the man hadn't realI)' died at all and that it had all been a mistake. That's not what the London Obsen,er said. They reported that Stewart was found dead rift3, feet below a windoxv. and that it was not a suicide. because the story of his dc2th had been printed in ~he public press in Scotlad where they do not print names o suicides, but rather incorporate them into the statistics of the annals of the Chief Constables. According to The Observer, Stewart's wife said she did not 'know how her husband's death occurred, "but she did know that it had nothing i ~ to do v~ith Scientology." F' ' Not many Scientologists leave the group voluntarily. [ Most of them firmly believe in Scientology and believe ~ that it is helping them. But someone who is grox~ing a | bit disenchanted may think twice before quitting. Any Scientolo~st who has ever been thoroughly audited has revealed a great deal of intimate information about himserf to an auditor whose qualifications and ethical standards could be subject to some question. The Rand Daily Mail in Africa reported that an auditor told the South African Inquiry that he was criticized because he kept the files on his patients "clean." The same auditor also told the Inquiry that the Scicntologists wanted him , to jot down the more "meaty" stuff people disclosed. He 'told the Inquiry that when he left Scientolo~,, he rei moved his files for fear of blackmail, adding that he had , often seen preclear's flies with information circled, and ~ith such statements as "we can use this" printed on it. Perhaps it is not surprising that he was afraid of blackmail. Not only is intimate information kept in files, but the contents of the files are sometimes discussed among Scientologists. At one time, these files were even accidentally accessible to outsiders. A former Scientolo~st, photographer Michael Chassid, said they were once kept in an unlocked area in back of the secretary's office in New York; in Washington, Hubbard's son said "it wasn't difficult for anyone of the Founding Church to gain access to these files;" and in England, The Suppressives 83 the Scientolo~sts were so careless with their records that personal files and documents concerning two Scien~ tolo~' P.T.S.'s were aliegedly found in a garba,__'e dump, read by a workman, and brought to the Suit, who reported the stoD'. The Board in Australia stated that Hubbard- himserf was "not to be trusted to preserve confidences." They cited the case of a preclear who was trying desperately to get back in Hubbard's good graces after he had been kicked out of the group. In the hopes of a pardon, he abased himself by writing a letter to Hubbard in which he confessed to a number of sins, which "range[d] from the stealing of five shillings from the mantel piece when he was six years old to very disgusting and depraved behavior in adult life." The Sdentologlsts produced this letter at the Australian Inquiry in an attempt to discredit this witness, and felt that they were justified in doing so because the confession was not made during an auditing session. In Australia, Andersen said, he found "no evidence of blackmail in the popular sense" but added that the existence of these files "containing the most inmate secrets and confessions" of thousands of individuals was a "constant threat." He added that it was "even more serious because copies of these reports are also held at Saint Hill Manor." There is no knox~m case of any Scientologlst actually having been blackmailed (although someone being blackmailed would not be very likely to admit it). But another question to consider, in addition to whether a person is being blackmailed, is whether he thinks he rnight be. If a Scientologist was wondering whether or not to leave the group and he heard his auditor discussing his case with a friend, as happened to Ray Buckin~eham, or he had been criticized for not recording "meaty" stuff, and saw files ringed "we can use this," as in the case of the South African witness, or ff he knew that Hubbard had requested files of people who wanted to leave and had said to "investigate at any cost" some- 84 THE SCAh'D.~L OF SCrENTOLOGY one who had left. or if he knew that Ms files were easily accessible and that they could be brought out and openly discussed at any time, wouldn't he think that he might be blackmailed and hesitate to leave ScientoloD'? Hubbard may even want preclears to think that their secrets might at some time be revealed. It is hard to interpret his statement below, which he wrote in Why People Fight Scientology, in any other way. After ambi~ously stating that the E-meter can be used "in other ways than mental health," he wrote: Every professional Scientologist is bound by his "Code of the Scientologist" which is more strict by far than the codes binding medical doctors and psychiatrists. Clause Nine of this Code is "to refuse to impart the personal secrets of my pre-clears." Anvone's secrets are safe with Scientolo~ until the person himsell no longer considers the matter important. (Author's Italics) 'f A fear of blackmail can keep a Scientologist as tied and subservient to Scientology as actual blacknnail-perhaps more so. x, Vhen someone 'knows that there is a great deal of personal information that could be revealed and he is led to believe that it might be revealed, even though no overt threat has been made or payment requested, he must simply sit and wait and wonder. .;- CI-LXPTER ELEVEN THE SEXUAL .~\'I) CRBIIN_~L SECIrRITY CHECK They keep a/ter you, asking the same question o~'er and over again until you tell them what they want to hear. You can't keep back anything. Later you realize you've spilled dI kinds o[ secrets to an almost total stranger whose character or integrity you know nothing whatever about. ---quote from someone who took the security check reprinted by Howard and Arlene Eisenberg in June '69 Parents Several aspects of the auditing session make it easy for a preclear to reveal more to his auditor than he may have intended. The preclear is under the control of the auditor, he is being asked certain questions repeatedly and relentlessly, and he is holding onto a machine that he believes works like a lie detector. Thus, it is not surL prising if the preclear loses control of some of his normal defenses. But in addition to the information preclears "voluntarily" reveal under such circumstances, Scientologists may fear blackmail because many have revealed extremely intimate information about themselves and their sexual habits during a so-called "security check." Here, it is not a matter of losing control-they must answer these questions or they can be kicked out of Scientology. This security check has been given 85 THE SCAN'DAL OF SCIENTOLOGY routinely before the second level of auditing, nnd at various other times when dif[iculties have arisen--such as when a person wants his monev back and wants to leave the group. The security check was conducted by having the preclear held on to the E-meter wifii.'-~ his interrogator or auditor established whether the meter was working cor- rectly, and how the person responded to it: Are you on the moon? Am I an ostrich? Have you ever drunk water? Is this a security check? V"'.The questions then fell into three general categories, al- l thou~ they were presented somewhat randomly: crirni- '! hal ~ts, crimes against Scientolo~', and sexual deeds or [. misdeeds. A few of the questions were designed to make people confess their more altruistic goals, such as "How could you help the Org? .... Others? ....How could you help mankind?" But these constituted less than five per- cent of the test, and most of the other questions fell into the category of one of the other questions, namely, "Have you ever done anything your mother would be ashamed to find out?" r-- The criminal questions constituted the largest portion } ~ of the test, and the person had to reveal whether he had '. ever stolen, looted, burglarized, shoplifted, forged, em- bezzled, falsified books,-entered a country illegally, been in prison, had a police record, been accused of reckless driving or hit and run, told lies in court, been paid to give evidence, committed arson, been a drug ad- dict, peddled dope, committed culpable homicide, planted a bomb, murdered, hidden a body, attempted suicide, caused a suicide, kidnapped anyone, smuggled anything, acted as an informer, betrayed someone for money, speculated Mth somebody else's funds, threat- ened anyone with a firearm or been in illegal possession of one, plotted to destroy a member of his family, crip- pled a person, committed a misdemeanor, a felony or a capital offense, criminally avoided taxes, counterfeited The Sexual and Criminal Securit3.' Check 87 money, fraudulcntly altered or issued certificates or documents, and been insane or had any insanity in his family. There were also questions about military records, such as whether or not the person had ever stolen from the armed forces, been court martizled. deserted from military sere'ice, illegally prevented conscription, or been a mutineer. There were several questions to determine whether a person was secretly working for another group, such as the Communist Part>.' or a group considered to be hostile to Scientology, such as the press. They asked the person whether he had ever lived or worked under an assumed name, given Ms right name in Scientology, been a newspaper reporter, a spy for the police, a spy for an organization, divulged government secrets for pay or political reasons, had anything to do with communism or been a communist. He was also asked whether he felt communism had some good points, whether he had ever been a member of any group with "ideals" similar to those of the Community parD', and whether he knew any communists personally. There were about twenty-five questions solely concerned with their feelings about Scientology, Hubbard, and Mary Sue, Hubbard's current wife. Some of these questions were rather amusing: Do you think selling auditing is really a s~indle? Do you feel that auditing is too good for psy- chotics or criminals? Is there anything mysterious to you about an E-meter? Have you ever mistrusted your E-meter? Do you think there's an)~d~ing wrong with invading a preclear's privacy? Do you plan to steal an Org? Have you ever iniured Dianetics or Scientolo~? Have you ever written then destroyed critical messages to L. Ron Hubbard? Have you ever had sex with any other student or staff member? THE SCANDAL OF SClENTOLOGY Are you trS, ing to get another student or staff member to have sex with you? Have you ever stolen anything from a Scicntok~,~y organization? . Do you have nnything in your possession that you shouldn't have? Have you ever had any unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard? Have you ever had any unkind thoughts about Mary Sue Hubbard? Have you permitted a preclear to have secrets from you? Do you regard auditing as punishment? Are you coming on this course ~th the intention of killing off your body, with the intention of spinning or going insane? Have you ever used Dianetics or ScientoloD, to force sex on someone? As for the sexual questions, while the follox~4ng list of activities at first ~ance would seem to cover the entire gamut of "sins," conspicuous in its absence are any questions about oral-genital or sadomasochistic actingties--and--in an organization consisting of a large number of young single people--fornication. How do you feel about sex? Have you ever raped anyone? Have you ever been raped? Have you ever been involved in an abortion? Have you ever assisted in an abortion? Have you ever committed bigamy? Have you ever practiced cannibalism? Have you ever practiced homosexuality? Have you ever practiced or assisted intercourse be,- tween women? Have you ever had intercourse with a member of your family? Have you ever been sexually unfaithful? Have you ever committed adultery? Have you ever practiced sex with animals? Have you ever killed or crippled anim~,2.ls for pleasure? Have you ever exhibited vourself in public? Have you ever hidden to watch sexual practices? Have you ever practiced sodomy? Do you collect sexual objects7 Have you ever had an3'thing to do with pornography? Have you ever taken money for giving mayone sexual intercourse? Have you practiced sex xxith children? Have you ever used hypnotism to procure sex or money? Have you ever used hypnotism to practice sex with children? Have you ever been a prostitute? Have you ever slept with a member of a nee of another color7 Have you ever been a voyeur? Have you ever had intercourse after placing an- other under alcohol or dru~7 Have you ever coerced a servant? Do you have any bastards? Have you ever had anything to do with a baby farm? Have you ever masturbated? There were also questions designed to find out ff there was anything not included in the security test: Are you ~ilty of something? Do you have a secret you're afraid I'Ll find o~:t? What questions on this check shouldn't I ask you again? Have you done anything your mother would be ashamed to find out? And finally, there were also questions about how they felt about the securi.ty check: Are you upset about this security check? How do you feel about these questions7 Are my questions embarrassing? 90 THE SCANDAL OF SCFENTOLOGY Is there any question the Director of Processing or L. Ron Hubbard should have asked and hasn't? What unkind thoughts have you thought while I was doing this check? If all this seems rather traumatic. however. some of the questions provided unintentional comic relief: Have x'ou ever coughed... during [Sciento!oLv] lectures? Are you in communication with someone who understands more about Scientology than does L. Ron Hubbard? Have you ever tried to act normal? The Security Test began by ha~ing the auditor read the following to the preclear: We are about to begin a security check. We are not moralists. We are able to change people. We are not here to condemn them. While we cannot guarantee you that matters revealed in this check will be held forever secret, we can promise you faithfully that no part of it nor any answer you make here ~ill be given to the police or state. No Scientologist will ever bear witness against you in court by reason of answers to this security check. This security check is exclusively for Scientolo~ purposes. The only ways you can fail this securi~ check are to refuse to take the test, to fail to answer its questions truthfully or if you are here knowing. ly ,to injure Scientolo~'. The only penalty attached to failure of this check is processing or our refusal to employ you or issue you a certificate, and this will happen only if we find that you are trying knowingly to injure Scientology. You can pass this test by 1) agreeing to take it, 2) answering each question truthfully, arid 3) not being a member of a subversive group seeking to injure Scientoto~. [Later it stated that the person would flunk the test if they refused to take it or if "any corn-. promising or important question" got a suspidous Itlc. u~-~.** ~**~, ~, ,,,,..o ......... .7 ........ reaction from the E-meter after being asked repeatedly.] While it's true that the auditor told the proclear that they "cannot ~guarantee... that all matters revealed in uhis test will be held forever secret," there was something that they didn't read to him. On this security chezk there was a statement by Hubbard which said, ".4l! security check sheets of persons securiD' checked should be jorwarded to ai~zt Hill, complete with all markings and the reason why the question would not at first clear if important, or ',he drop mark wkich would not clear and whether or not the person passed or failed." (Italics Hubbard) Thus, few preclears have realized that their most intimate secrets were being sent to the main ScientoloD' headquarters in England-~hich can be compared to a priest's sending copies of confessions--with names--to the Vatican. The person undergoing this test also had to pay for it, and in one ease it took Bventy-three hours, because no matter how much the person may have insisted he was telling all, in ScientoloD' the E-meter is ~ways considered to be infallible. Hubbard even told the auditors to have a "thorou~ swinish suspicion and no belief in mankind or the devil----only the meter." Reading the E-meter could be difficult thong, since it can react in a number of wa3's, which Hubbard called a "Theta Bop" (dancing needle) "Rock Slam" (irre~lar motion) etc. But Hubbard said a fall in the needle always meant "Oh! Oh! He got me!" Thus, for example, if a preclear denied that he had ever practiced cannibalism and the needle fell, the checker had to repeat the question in a variety of ways until the person admitted that he had. But what if the person honesfly hadn't practiced cannibalism, never thou~t about it, never planned to, and the meter just kept falling an}~'ay? Rather than consider the machine wrong, they would try to determine whether the preclear ever practiced cannibalism in one o[ his past lives. One of the things the Scientologists did to improve 92 THE SCANrDAL OF SCIEN'TOLOGY their image was to announce on November 29, 196~, that they had caneclod the seeuriC' test "as a form of confession," along with ending the "disconnect" policy "as a relief to those suffering from familial repression." "Suppressives" apparently still exist. but are now supposed to be deLlIt with by "handling" or persuasion, rather than "disconncctinf' or ostracism. This is certainly a hopeful sign and may indicate a general change in their policy. It would be unwise to be optimistic too early, howe~'er, since in fie past, Scientologists have dropped unpopular policies and then resumed them later. For example, they have periodically granted amnesty to all suppressives, once, in celebration of John McMaster's becoming "clear"; once for Hubbard's birthday, etc. But later, they simply declared new people suppressive and resumed their policy. In fact, Ray Buckingham, fie "suppressive" voice teacher, Was once granted amnesty--provided he took about $200 worth of Scientoloa' comes. The Australian report also discussed the ScientoloL~sts' tendency to change their policies or state that thin~ were no longer in effect. The Board was told that various procedures were not now used, that others were not as long or as intense as had earlier appeared... even that the demonstration sessions which had been conducted at the beginning of the Inquiry were not now as fully representative as they had been . . . The Board was not deceived by these attempts to present a watered-down picture of Scientology. Just around the corner are more of Hubbard's "breakthroughs" and more techniques and theories ... once this inquiry is finished there bill be a resurgence of all the pernicious activiS' which marked the progress of Scientology up to the appointment of the Board, if only it can find sufficient victiu~ to exploit. Hopefully the Australian Report wil/be wrong. CHAPTER TWELVE THE ~VOPtLD OF $CIENIOLOGY Suzie saw the pc well into the PT and practZcaZ!y collapsed on the missed W/H. --bulletin by Hubbard explaining what he and his family were currently doing. (What this seems to mean is 1) Suzie is Hubbard's wife and sometimes acts as his auditor. 2) pc is preclear or someone being audited; in this case it may have been Hubbard. 3) PT means present time or current problem. 4) Missed W/H means missed withholds or something the person hasn't disclosed to his auditor.) It may seem by now that Scientolo~' is filled with fol- lowers who dare not speak out against it and are being held at the Orgs against their Bill. ~,Vhile the first may bc true, the second is definitely not. Although Scientolo- gists are not permitted to speak against Scientology, most of them don't want to, because they truly and un- questioninky believe in Scientology's principles and practices, and sincerely want to stay there and be a part of it. In fact, it is because of this unquestioning dedica- tion that they react so strongly against those who try tp...~, turn or speak against them. Most Scientologists are per- / fectly content to work for the Org, be audited or audit ~ ethers, "disconnect" or divorce themselves, ff necessary, [ from their "suppresslye" spouses or parents, remarry j other Scientologists, and bring their own children into l 93 94 THs SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY the Soup. The result is that the S,cientolo~sts have formed a little world of theLr own, a xvorld that seems removed from the real one. From the moment you walk into an Org, it hits you like heat on a hot summer day. L. Ron Hubbard, or "Ron," is the unquestionable leader of this world and some of his Orgs are said to have an o.T~ce for him just in case he should drop by. Although he never does, his presence is felt, seen and heard nonetheless. In one room, kientolo~sts may be listening to tapes of him speaking on ScientoloD', in the next room others may be doing thek homework (which often consists of reading one of his books and sometimes writing a synopsis on it), and elsewhere, newcomers may be watching a movie about him. Huge posters of his face hang from the walls, statues of him rise from the floor, and photographs abound, sometimes of Hubbard in a nautical outfit with one of his ships as a bach ground. The world of ScientoloD' not only has its own leader, but also its own language, look, and behavior. This language is so specialized that Scientologists have had to print a special dictionary to translate all their words, some of which are neolo~stic combinations of science, science fiction and mumbo-jumbo (enturbulafion, engrams, enmest, dub-ins, etheta, rock-slams, Boo-Hoo, etc.), along with so many abbreviations (itsa---- it is a, uncon= unconscious), and acronyms (PTS, PABS, LRH, SP, WOG, MEST, PC, HCO-V~.~vV, etc.) that most Scientolo~ists sound as if thdy're eating a metaphysical alphabet soup. In addition to their own language, Scientologists .have their own look and behavior that enables a trained Scientology spotter to discern one easily. The ~veaways are their eyes. Scientologists are trained to stare relentlessly in to the eyes of others and acknowledge everything said to them CI'hank you, OK, beautiful) in a way that can sometimes be unnerving. Sexual behavior in this world is also said to be different, and Hubbard has admitted that some of the Orgs ~ ll~ I'1' LitIll tl] ~blctiiv~v,sJ ' ' have had sex problems. ~e London Sunday Times quoted him as say~g "I know of four Or~ in ~ our ve~s that have coUapsed or nearly collapsed. Md each ~ne w~ sex cra~'." ~e Aus~aHan inqu~ investigated these sexual attitudes ~d found that some kientolo~ists believed it was all right to seduce. say, a ~teen-ve~bld-~l, because a thetan has had many sexual activi6es, and fur~crmore she was rely over seventy uillion plus fifteen years old (and obviously past ~e age of consent). ~e InquiD, ~so reported ~at ~e kientoloDs~' c~ual attitude towed sex w~ apparent ~ ~e c~e of one kientolo~st who read B ~e's kientolo~ ~es h ~e coume of office rou~g ~d ~coverM she w~ having ~ ~, eider re~ or f~tasi~, wi~ ~otber Scientolo~sL He s~ply endowed ~e ~es of hB wife "lacks mores." The Bo~d w~ also &starbed to find that abo~ons were "a~ost a re~l~ ~ffee break topic" at ~e Aus~aHan Org, and ~ey ap&buted ~s to Hubb~d's ~nstant mention of abo~om ~ ~s wfithgs. The Bo~d also cl~med to have found evidence that many of ~e staff, bth m~ed ~d unm~ed had undergone abortions, but s~ce ~B report w~ ~TiUen ~ 1965 when attitudes toward such matters were less Hber~, its ~pon~ce today ~ questionable. In addition to ~ek o~ l~age, l~k ~d morality, the ScientoloD' world has its o~ definition of cie ~d pu~shment, wi~ cert~ acts labeled ~ "~sdemeanors" (e.g., refus~g an E-meter check), "crimes" (e.g., hec~ng a kientolo~' su~isor) and "~gh cies" (e.g., >4elding a Scientolo~st to ~e demands of civil or cial law). kientolo~sts must o~y ~ enomous number of ml~, some of which ~e out~es for them ~ HCO (Hubb~d Co~u~cations Office) ordem, w~ch are usually ~sted on the buHe~ bonds. On a bulletin bo~d ~ England, one HCO order read: "To aH StY. Subject: B.O. ~ staffera ~e to we~ a deodorant." ~other pro~bited aH k~entolo~sm kom see~g the movie 2001--A Space Odyssey because it "produces hea~ and u~ecess~' restimulafion" (in other words, 96 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY it will perhaps remind them of their past lives when many of them believed they lived in outer space). A third HCO order declared a person "suppressire" for likening the Sea Org to the Hitler re~cine. A last one concerned someone who was "unshaven and scruffv on pubiic lines." For this, he ~as not only fined by the Scientolog..ists and ordered to bux' a ~c50 suit and have his hair fixed, but was also told to take and pay for certain Scientolo_.oy courses. Sometimes the notices are a bit lighter. One person once posted a notice on the bulletin board to tell the others how great he felt the moment he had paid his Scientology bill! Punishment for infractions of the ScientoloD' rules depends on the crime, but it sometimes seems well out of proportion. Wlile some of the punishments may perhaps have some educational value, like writing additional words or adding case studies to their thesis or even making them undergo additional auditing, other punishments seem to be merely humiliating. ScientoloS..ists may be made to perform menial work, deliver a "paralysing blow to the enemy," admit their errors, and petition ever3, other Scientologist in the Org for for~veness. Other punishm~ts are even worse: a person may be declared "nonexistent," and may not be aliowed to bathe, wear makeup, go to their hairdresser, shave, take lunch hour, leave the premises. A person may be put into a "condition of liability" and be confined to the premises with a dirty grey rag on his left arm. For a greater infrhction a person may be put into a "condition of doubt" and confined or barred with a handcuff on one ~ist. A person may be declared an "enemy" and restrained or imprisoned, have the label of "Treason" attached to his records, and be turned over to civil authorities with his "full background to be explored for the purposes of prosecution." Alexander Mitchell, xvho writes consistently interesting articles on Scientolog3' for the London Sunday Times, found that in the basement of the Scientology Queen Street office, London, the Scientologists actually had a prison--a tin}, padlocked The Worm o.~ Scientolog)' ~ I rck~m known as the "dungeon" where erring Scientolocists were locked up, sometimes for several days, on bread. butter and water. "If a member of the staff made an ac3ounting slip, or infringed on an ethics order." he worte, "he is taken to the dungeon to enable him to find out where he is in Scientology." One Scientologist told Mitchell that after he xv/~.s locked up for two dax's. "I sigmed an order saying I xvould observe all re~_o~ala:ions of the org. but thev weren't satisfied. I was told to go on a 6 (about $145 an hour course to improve my ethics. I couldn't take anymore so I quit." Punishments administered by Scientologists are not restricted to erring members alone. In Tunbridge ~Vdls, Kent, England, Willa Hickrnan, o~mer of the Harewood Hotel, decided not to cater to the Scientologists after the3' placed him in a "condition of liability" (which meant he would have to ~vear a dirty rag on his arm) and told him he would have to get his Scicntolo~ customers to sign a petition of for~veness--all becaus~ he had run out of apple pie. Ct{APTER THIRTEEN CIIILDPff__N' .~uND CELEBRITIES Educatio~:. i.v necessary because one earns better after t~c ]:as learned. --"Child Dianetics" There are two types of people that the Scientolo~sts are very anxious to attract: children and celebrities. In En.gland, the Scientologists already have a number of children in the Org, althou~ Hubbard wrote that "serious processing" should not be done before a child was five years old, "extensive Processing" except in very unusual circumstances, should not be done before he was eight, and that no child should be "forced" into the prenatal area until he was m'elve. The youngest Scientology clear ri~t now is said to be eleven, although the Scientolo~ists have reported "processing" an eighteen month baby, and a baby who was just a few days old (by saying to him repeatedly, "Lie in bed. Thank you."). Hubbard has an extremely permissive attitude toward child-rearing: "So he tears up his shirt, wrecks his bed, breaks up his fire engine. It's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, he wrote. He also said in Child Dianetics": Care for the child?--nonsense! He's probably got a better grasp of immediate situations than you have. Only when he's almost psychotic with aber- rations will a child be an accident prone. Hubbard a/so believes that it's pretty difficult to make a 99 100 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY child Fow up to be a pervert. and his description of what can lead to perversions is an example of Hubbard's amazing imagination and facility for cataloging a variety of unbelievable tortures: "Kicking a baby's head in. running him over with a steam roller, cutting him in half with a rusty knife, boiling him in lysol. and all the xvhile with craz3.; people screaming the most ho~ifying and unprintable things at him." Hubbard's permissiveness, however, does not always extend toward children who don't want Scientolo~, auditing. "If the child is even faintly unwilling to be audited, you can coax the child into short sessions, and then, as time goes on, lengthen them gradually," he wrote. Hubbard, who has seven children, plus seven grandchildren naturally has devised an auditing tecnique for kids. Children are given such simple processing as "Feel my arm. Thank you. Feel your arm. Thank you." They are also sent back to relive their birth, and it is apparently as painful an experience for them as it is for some of the adult preclears, since Hubbard wrote: If the auditor should make a slip, like telling the child that birth won't hurt him much when he returns to it, the child WLll be expecting a mild or nothing at all... an auditor hasn't known frustration until he has nm a child halfway throu~ a painful experience only to find that a happy ending has been tacked onto it. Scientologists feel that their treatment is of great benefit to children, hnd' they have made a number of active attempts to get their methods taught in schools. Below is a quote by Hubbard, ostensibly telling Scientologists how to deal Mth the press, but in fact telling them how to get Scientology in schools. Hubbard recommends Scientologists put teachers and students on "meters" (E-meters), and give "daily mental activides"--which is what they do in Scientology. It is interesting to note that Hubbard's obsession with sex and violence become apparent once again, inasmuch as the hypothetical case he chose concerns a teen-age girl who was raped. t, lll~ti~r~f~ Idll,~ ~,,...~I,C~/ c,,~a Teen-a~e ~1 shows up in H[ubb~d] G[uid~ce] C[enter~ w~o h~ been beaten and raped by teenare boys at High ~hool and withhol~g it since. .~udit it out, get parents to OK investigation. Call ~ press. Release stoD' of ~ce and crime at local high school with ~e Org doing ~hc invcsfig::i~n. O~ subsc~uc:~t dzx's. cfitic~c laxity of ~licc. Criticie prinbipal. ~ma~y, take more teen-age sex cases. Just day by day deal off a new action ~o th~ , press. String fie stoD' out. Take an action. Hold a press coherence. Put sindens on meters. Put teachers on meters. Get p~enm to sue. F~y, advise sch~l hke a ~ent ment~ cometant and ~ve daily ment~ exercises to "teen-age monsters." ~en ~ap it up and skip it. You've made something e~ be~me some~g good att~ed-kientolo~~ in schools. At the end of ~s piece he gave the Scientolo~sts ~other exercise to do: "Do a story desi~ ~d calend~ for kientoloD' ~nisters demsd FDA prove steity pills aren't sex siul~ts." One case ~ w~ch ~e ~ientolo~sts did get hto a school caused a scandal h Endand ~ 1960. At ~at time, Miss SheHa Hoad, owner of ~e E~t G~stead Aston House Prep sch~l for boys ~d ~1s kom ~e~ ~d-a-h~ to eleven, became ~endly wi~ ~ .~efic~ ~ientologist named Dr. (perhaps of-~ientolo~) ~ompson, who Hved ~ ~ apa~ment adjo~ng ~e school. Dr. ~ompsOn gave ~ss Hoad a b~k called Creative Learning: A Scientological Experitnent in Schools, which w~ written by two Scientolo~sts and w~ once actively promoted in ~ientoloD' pubEcatio~. Miss Hoad preceded to follow the ~stmcfio~ ~ the book, and for twenD' ~utes each day, ~stead of Eng~sh ~amm~ lessons, she ga~e ~em ~e foEo~g excretes to do. ission 1 consisted of 20 ~utes of obey~g simple co~ds ~e "stand up" :d "sit down." ~e pu~ose of ~is w~ to have the "pup~ fo~ow the order without questions and happEy." Session 4 consist- 102 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY ed of the teacher saying "hello" and the kids saying "'all right" for ten minutes, and then this process was reversed. In session 5, the teacher asked them to "remember a time that seems real to you," "remember a time when you were in good communication ~ith somecne" and "ren~,embcr a time when vo.a felt some strange ~nity for someone," and the tez. c2:er then acknowledged it. ("Thank you .... All right") There was a note that simpler words could be used for that lesson. Then came the death lessons. Miss Hoad told twentyfive of her pupils to "close your eyes. Concentrate. Now ima~ne you are d3ing. Imagine you are dead. Now you have turned to dust and ashes. Now ima~ne you are putting the ashes back inside yourself." These "death lessons," as the3' came to be called, were given behind locked doors with a "Do Not Disturb" sign outside, and the children were told "never think about these lessons after they are over," which suggested to many that she was warning the children not to tell their parents about it. But one nine-year-old pupil became so depressed aRer the lessons that her mother had to take her to a doctor and she whispered the secret to him. Ano~er child, after ointment was rubbed on her chest for a cold said "Mummy, I am going to die. I feel funny inside." That mother, who had perhaps heard about Hubbard's attaching an E-meter into plants to see ff they could feel pain, said "Let Dr. Thompson inject his cucumbers when he thinks they are in pain. But let him leave my daughter aloneY The other parents were equally outraged, althou{,da Miss Hoad insisted that the lessons were the same as sa3ing "The Lord's Prayer." The parents disagreed. Miss Hoad resided after several iparents pulled their children out of the school and even more were absent. The Scientologists dissociated them- selves from the treatment saying that those methods ,: were "outdated and dangerous" and that the current ! .~ practice was to imagine "beautiful things." Dr. Thompson, who had a child in the school, said he would not remove the child. Rumors to the effect that death lessons Children and Celebrities 103 were being ~ven in other English schools persisted for a long time after the incident. In addition to thing to get children to become Scien1ologists, Scientolo'dsts also actively solicit celebrities. Their celebrity cha~ing eoes back to around 1955 when Hubbard invited his ~f~llowers to write and tell him which celebrity they wanted. promising to allo:.ate one to each persorl whg asked for one. The person, however, was responsible for all the expenses involved in getting the celebrity into ScientoloD'. Anyone ,a'ho succeeded would receive two weeks of special coaching at the Phoenix Org, although they would have to pay for their own living expenses and transportation. Some of the people whom Hubbard hoped would become Scientologists, and whom he offered to allocate, were: Walter Winchell, Ed Sullivan, Marlene Dietrich, Ernest Heming~'ay, Danny Kaye, Joseph Alsop, Stewart Alsop, Sid Caesar, Liberace, Fred .~dlen, Arthur Godkey, George Gobel, Fulton I. Sheen, James Stewart, Howard Hughes, Billy Graham, Bob Hope, Pablo Picasso, Walt Disney, Milton Berle, Jackie Glenson, Lowell Thomas. Red Skelton, Hem'5' Luce, Walter Lippman, Groucho Marx, Cecil B. Dege, .M-turo Toscanini, Bing Crosby, Greta Garbo, Charles Addares, Donald O'Connor, Edward R. Murrow. Hubbard admitted that pursuing these celebrities would be a bit difficult, but he told his followers not to be dismayed and to pursue them relentlessly. "Put yourself at every hand across his or her path," wrote Hubbard, and do not permit "discouragement or 'no's' or clerks or secretaries to intervene in days or weeks or months to bring your celebrity in for a formal auditing session." Project Celebrit3' still seems to be one of their policies, since the Scientologists recently opened a Celebrity Center in California allegeally for the purpose of attracting Hollywood personalities. Last year it was claimed that the follov~ing celebrities were Scientolo~sts: Tennessee Willjams, Leonard Cohen, Mama Cass Elliot, ] 04 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY Stephen Boyd, Jim Morrison, V,~LLtiam Burrou~'hs and possibly the Beatles. One famous, in fact infamous person interested in Scicntolo~.~,y that they do not boast about, talk about, or probably even want is Charles Manson, the convictcd murderer of Sharon Tate and her friends. The New York Times stated that kianson fk'st got interested in Scientology while he was incarcerated in the McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washin~on (Scientolo~' has programs for prisons). After his release, The Times reported, he went to Los Angeles where he was said to have met local Scientologists and attended several parties for movie stars, possibly the July 18 d~ication of the celebrity center. Scientology literature was also said to be found at the ranch when Manson and his family were captured. But for reasons unknown, it is claimed that Manson may have been made a "suppresslye person" by the Scientologists, and there have also been hints that he may have joined the Process, the sex and satan group which originally broke away from Scientolo~,. Another bit of publicity that the Scientolo~sts are probably not too pleased with concerns the murder of three people in Los Angeles. Two were Scientolo~sts. According to The New York Post, all three were brutally beaten, ritualistically stabbed, had their ri~t eyes cut out, and were dumped 100 yards from a Scientology commune. One of the girls, Miss Doreen Gaul, nineteen, who came from New York to study Scientolo~,, was naked except for a strand of Indian beads. The boy, James Sharpe was fifteen years old. The third was unidentified. Doreen Gaul's father allegedly told a New York Post reporter that she had lately become disenchanted with Scientolo~. She was not the only one. For the past fourteen years, John McMasters, the first S~entolo~' clear, appears to have been groomed by Hubbard to take his place when he dies. McMasters recendy wrote a letter to Hubbard, and sent copies to "suppressives" and Scientology enemies. Although McMasters declared L, llli~lflYll ~ll,t,iL, tjl, r,,ut **~o ~at "I shall never ~&aw my alle~ance to Ron or ~ientolo~"' he announced that he w~ lea~g Hu~ b~d's s~ps to spread Scientolo~' ~ tea, because ot ~s "horror at what such people on ~e Sea Org could do to mankind." He c~ticized Hubbard and ~ientolo~ for their "savage and vicious et~cs" and seemed par~icul~ly ~rmrbed over ~e death of the ~ree Los Anzeles teen-agers. ~ek deaths may have pxfiaBy precipitated McMasters' decision to &ss~iate ~se~ from cen~ as~c~ of Scientolo~'. "Somehow we ~e ~%la~g our basic e~cs for such ~n~ to happen to ~," he ~ote. "~ese l~t two ~astly m~ders of o~ students, one of whom ~ a cle~, need never have hap pened ff we hadn't been moc~g up [mat~ enemin so soHdly." CHAPTER FOURTEEN SCIENTOLOGYI BUSINESS OR Ihr_.LIGION? Ron Hubbard does not look upon himseU as a patriarch, pope, bishop or even eider. "/control the operation," he says, "as a general mana~,er would control any operation of a company." --from an interview with Hubbard for "The Saturday Evening Post" Scientolo~sts repeatedly emphasize that Hubbard makes no money from Scientolo~ because he pours any money he receives back into the organization for re-search. If this is true, then it is to the Sc%ntologists' credit that they have spent an enormous amount of money for research, because Hubbard has often received a ten percent fithe from the ~oss income of the Churches. In addition to this, he once levied an additional five percent tax on Orgs which were slow in paying up, and also once requested that his Or~ send him "any extra money you have around." Just where the money goes has never been clear. His followers swear that he uses none of it personally, and there seems to be no question in their minds that his many homes, cars, boats, etc., are all necessary for the Scientolo~ operation. His followers' faith is such that no one in the Orgs seemed particularly perturbed when they saw the picture of Hubbard and his wife next to 107 108 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY their car, and the caption "Ron and Mary Sue beside their Ja~,ouar." Hubbard's wealth may have also come from the publication of at least thirty-five books that he's written on Scientc~io~' and Dk~netics. He wri:es one every six months. sells 6-9,000 copies of each. and rccov;rs his printing costs in eighty days. One of the books, D.,alzctics.' The Modern Science of Mental Health, the most 7elentlessly promoted of all of his books, has sold a milton and a half copies since it was published. In addition, Hubbard makes all Orgs buy $10,000 worth of his books ($5,000 with cash) or he declares the Executive Secretary, whose job it is to purchase these books "nonexistent" for this "betrayal to humanit},.'' There is also some evidence that Hubbard has made money by auditing people personally at $50 an hour and by speaking at Scientolop., Congresses which he set up. These SeientoloD' Congresses are generally a good source of income, since the}' cost at least $75 per couple. In fact, one in 1958 that included auditing brought in appro.'-dmately $800 per person from at least 140 people, thereby earning over S100,000 for the weekend. Scientolo~sts also promote a number of special items in a booklet they call Expand whose title seems to have nothing to do ~th the potentialities of the mind. Expand advertises not only Hubbard's books ("ORDER AS ~L~NY. BOOKS AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN WITHOUT REGARD TO FIXED CONSUMPTION AND FLOG THEM,"), but also films about Hubbard, ("GET THESE FILMS NOW AN~D BOOST YOUR STATS TO BOOM PROPORTION"), tapes of Hubbard ("The Org Board and Livinghess," "The Missed Missed Withhold"), Church certificates for marriages, funerals and christenings (which are legal in many states), old father Hubbard's cupboard of E-meters (which are sold for more than $126, although the goVernment determined in 1963 that the5' cost only $12.50 to build), car badges, Scientology scar~'es, pins, blazer Scientology--Business or Religion? 109 badges, cuff links, money clips, earrin}, and set[ portraits of L. Ron Hubbard himself for only $5.35 a piece C'Ron's tremendous bein~ess, stren~h and depth of understanding show through ma~_m:fificently."). It is these very commercial ~pects of the Church, plus the large sums of money that Hubbard has made, that have recently caused them to lose their ta_x-iree status in America. In August, 1968, the United States Court of Claims ruled, on appeal from a decision of the Trial Examiner in July of 1967, that Seientolo~' failed to qualify as a corporation "organized and operated enfirely for religious purposes." Seientology appealed this decision again in May of 1969 with Michael I. Sanders brilliantly arguing the case for the government. The Scientologists lost again when the Court of Claims ruled against them in August, in view of the fact that during the four year period of 1956-1959, the Washin~on group had made $758,982 and paid Hubbard more than $100,000 plus the use of a car and a home, along with some unexplained pa}maents to his family, and in some cases ten percent of the gross income of the various groups. This su~ested a "franchise network for a private corporation." Now the Scientolo~ists have only the Supreme Court to turn to, and if they lose there, they're in trouble. The case mentioned above concerns more than $758,000 that the Scientologists brought into their Washington, D.C., headquarters during a four year period when Scientology was not nearly as lucrative an operation as it is now. But if Scientology loses this final appeal, action could be followed for the more lucrative years after 1959 and interest would be due on the taxes for all of those years in question. In addition, this only concerns the Founding Church of Seientology in Washington, D.C. The Internal Revenue ~ Department may hit the other Seientology groups in at least nine other United States ciries with the same taxes since 1956 at six percent interest. (Action has already been started in New York.) Although Sdentolo~ could suffer very badly from such a decision, they may also be 110 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY helped, since the Government may not be inclined to try to put a ~oup out of business that owes a large sum of money in back taxes. Hubbard does not seem to be personally involved in all this, since he claims to have given up his directorship in Scientology in 1966. But if the last appeal is lost, maybe Hubbard will have to save his Church with his own money. He c!ai~s to have already for~ven them a $13 million debt (he did not state where that money came from) "an understandable act of charity," ~Tote Time magazine, "considering that he has boasted to friends of having $7 million stashed away in two numbered Swiss bank accounts." ~A number of people believe that Hubbard originally turned the "science" of Dianetics into the "religion" of Scientology in order to avoid the very taxes and financial difficulties that are plaguing them now. Even Hubbard's own son, while admitting that Scientolo~ had expanded "toward the addressing of the being" said it was also established as a religion because there was "more latitude in . . . regard to corporate structure," and that it had certain tax advantages, most notably tax exemption. But the religious aspects have not only enabled ScientoloD- to not pay taxes, but it has also enabled them to avoid prosecution or--as they prefer to call it-- the persecution that threatened Dianetics. The law allows a great deal of latitude toward religions, which don't have to live up to the strict standards of some other groups. The reli~on also helps get Scientolo~ some of its members. The idea that it is a religion adds an air of respectability to the organization, often reinforced by the Scientolo~ Reverends who may wear a full clerical garb that includes a collar, vest, black clerical robe, and a cross "bigger than the Archbishop of Canterbury," as one London skeptic described it:Hubbard wrote that the religious aspects also served another function: "Society accords to men of the Church an access not given to others. Prisons, hospitals, and institutions... cannot do otherwise than welcome men of the Church." Not only l.~l..lCll. l~11. Lt~2;.y---o14o~tl~..j..I tit .~,v..~.s8~vl,. ~-- does the reli~on enable Scientologists to enter certain places, but also to get out of them. One New York Scientologist. by claining he was a "student el the minisir3.' of Soientolo~" was able to get out of the draft, althouS..h this case is currently being appealed. People xvho join this Church are Jewish. Catholic, Protestant--it doesn't matter--because anyone who ioins the Church of Scientolo~' joins a "no:sectarian i-eli~ous corporation" and does not have to renounce the religion in which he was born. Just as it is not too difficult to become a member of tlis Church, it is not terribly difficult to become a minister either. At one time, all one had to do was be an auditor, and then pay another $150, memorize the Scientology creed, prepare his own ethical code, know several "ordinary" Church ceremonies, the Gospel according to St. John, the Church of Scientolo~ sermons, and read The Great Religions by which Men Life. He does not even have to attend any sp~ial classes and can do this work on his own. Once he becomes a minister, he is also entitled to receive the benefits accorded other ministers. In Anent Rendering Unto Caesar, Hubbard told them what they could de- i duct from taxes, namely, rent, utilities, office supplies, L_car for ministerial functions, etc. The Church of Scientology also has Sunday church services--although often in a very nonclerical setting, such as their summer outdoor services in Central Park in Manhattan. These services are also more a pitch for Scientolo~' than for God. Someone usually gets up and discusses a phase of Scientolo~', along with a testimonial on how it changed his life; this may be followed by an afternoon of Israeli songs, a blues guitarist, a pianist, or a 'folk singer, who sometimes sings what are probably the most suggestive lyrics ever heard within a clerical setting. The Church of Scientology also has its own ceremonies. While the Church of Scientology Ceremonies book states that the services must have "divinity and order," it also says that they do not have to be "solemn and rever- 112 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY eat." The Bible is rarely ff ever quoted, and the ceremo-nv book states "there is certainiv no necessitx' to quote from any other source." A taped lecture by Hubbard or question and answer periods might also be included. Some of the services in this book, such as the double ring marriage ceremony. sound more like an auditing session than a matrimoni'al one. (Minister to the Groom) Are you readv to accept this woman as your wife? (Groom) Thank you. ' (Minister to the Bride) Are you ready to accept this man as your hus- band? (Bride) Thank you. During a Christening, the thetan is introduced to the body, then introduced to his parents' bodies, as well as those of his godparents. At the end of the ceremony the thetan is acknowledged and thanked for his participation. An "informal" Christening performed by Hubbard at one of the Scientology Congresses is discussed in the ceremony book. The Australian Report called the follo~4ng christening by Hubbard a "travesty." [Hubbard] O.K. The parents of these children will bring them front and center. (Spealcfig to the child): This is ~fi-._ and this is Mrs. I'm introducing to the audience right now. And and have decided to be a godfather and godmother. So we're all set. Here we go. (To fie child) How are you? All right. Now your name is You got that? Good. There you are. Did that upset you? Now do you realize that you're a member of the HASI? ScientoIogymBusiness or Religion? 113 [Hubbard Association of Scientolo~sts International] Pretty good, huh? All fight. Now I want to introduce you to your father. This is Mr. ~ (to the parent): C,?me over here. (To the child): .-Xnd here's x-our mcLher. And now, in case you set into trouble and want to borrow some quarters, here's Mr. See him? He's 3'our godfather. Now, take a look at him. That's rig~ht. And here's in case you want some real good auditors; she's your godmother. Got it? Now you are suitably christened. Don't worD' about it, it could be worse. O.K. Thank you very much. They'll treat you all fiZ.,ht. As to whether Scientolo~ is rely a reli~on, the Scientolo~sts frequently boast that they were declared a bona fide reli~on. Actually this is not quite the victory they claim. The incident had its be~nnings on January 4, 1963, when fourteen Deputy, Marshals and several Food and Drug Administration Agents, or as the Scientolo~sts said, "longshoremen posing as Marshals," raided the Scientolo~' headquarters in Washington, D.C. and seized 100 E-Meters along with several Scientology publications on the grounds that the E-meters were "mhbranded." This was based on the fact that the attached literature, meaning Scientolo~ literature, either claimed or implied that the E-meter was capable of dia~osis, prevention, treatment, detection, and elimination of the causes of all mental and nervous disorders such as neuroses, psychoses, schizophrenia and all psychosomatic ailments. Sdentologists protested that seizing their meters and books was a form of "religious persecution," and they referred to the incident afterwards as the "book burning." They even ~TOte letters at the 114 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY time to President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy asking them to protect the Scientolo~sts' religion, "even thou~ you are of a different faith." Hubbard also expressed a desire to meet personally with President Kennedy for a conference to "come to some amicable answer on religious matters." No conference ever transpired. Wtile in April of 1967 a decision was returned for the government, in February of 1969, the United States Court of Appeals, in a split decision overruled it, saying ;~4 that the seizure of the meters was illegal. The FDA said ! '.,i whether or not Scientology is a religion was "irrelevant to the case." In their summary they stated that "... Scientolo~, has made out a prima facie case that it is a ; bona fide reli~on, and since no rebuttal has been offered, it must be regarded as a religion Jor purposes oJ this case." (Author's italics. ) So if the Scientolo~sts have suffered a financial setback, it has been somewhat offset by a spiritual victory,. Hubbard is really the winner all around. Not only has he become rich but no one has yet legally disputed his claim that he has founded a religion. In an article in Parents' magazine, June 1969, Arlene and Howard Eisenberg wrote that Sam Moscowit. z, science fiction writ- er and editor, had heard Hubbard speak before the Eastern Science Fiction Association in Newark, New Jersey. Althou~ Mr. Moscowitz was not certain of the exact words Hubbard used, he said that Hubbard in effect had said that writing science fiction at a penny a i . word was no way to get rich--but if you really wanted to make a ion you should start your own religion. CFL~,PTER FIFTEEN IS SCIEN'TOLOGY POLITICAL ? Scientology and Scientologists are not revo?tltionaries. They are evoltttionaries. Ti:ey do not stand for overthrow. They are for the improvement of what we have. Scientology is not political. ~L. Ron Hubbard Hubbard outlined a program for Scientolo~' expansion in the mid-1950's, and while it pertained sp-,.cifically to South Africa, much of it seems relevant to their policies elsewhere. Their goal then, Hubbard wrote, was 1) to get Scientology known 2) to get Scientolog~' established in schools 3) to have Scientolo~' established in the universities 4) to have it established in industries 5) to have Scientology in the mines 6) and finally, to get Scientology "into the government and government de-partmerit and services." As for some of these goals, examples were cited earlier of the methods Scientologists used to get known and to get their methods taught in schools. The Australian Inquiry found that the Scientologists had explored the possibility of promoting Scientology in various government departments. They said that they "considered the Education Department to be a good procurement area" and made some effort to "infiltrate it," but wiCn no real SUCCESS. The Scientologists also tried to "take over" the Brit- 115 116 ThE SCANDA. L OF SCIEN~EOLOGY ish National Association of Mental Health. (To be discussed later) Hubbard seems to be especially interested in getting into this field. He was once planning to start an auditing program for retarded children--a text for The Society Jor the Mentally Retarded Children which he said was a program "we are now piloting in the U.S." There is also some evidence that Hubbard wanted to get his auditing methods into prisons, because he said he was planning to write a book called The Criminal Mind for a "clearing course for prisons." Scientolo~, has also approached business organizations to get their methods taught there, and has had some success in this field. In fact, they have gone into a number of business deals themselves. There is a lot of private enterprise among Scientologists, some related to Scientology. For example, Two Scientologists started a School of Stage Confidence using Scientology techniques, and two other Scientologists put out a record called "Free" under a Scientology label, dedicated to L. Ron Hubbard. In East Grinstead, Scientology owns a number of houses and stores. The Scientologists also tried to buy Lundy Island in England, which is inaccessible for large portions of the year, "as a retreat for people with nervous disorders," one paper quoted the Scientolo~sts as saying. (According to another British paper, they were planning to buy it as a refuge for foreiF students to beat the Government ban on their coming into the country.) Scientologists once also sold a pill called "Dianezene" which Hubbard said would prevent and 'treat harmful effects caused by exposure to radioactivity. Twenty-one thousand of these tablets were seized on October 1, 1965, for being misbranded, adulterated, and containing less than the declared amount of stated ingredients. According to the London Sunda3, Dispatch, Hubbard allegedly sold stock at about $65 a share in 1959 to a company that didn't exist. Hubbard apologized afterward, explaining that certain legal formalities he thought were completed were not. He returned all the Is Sciemology Political? 117 money, and allegedly said, "It's luck'5' the police did not become involved, otherx~dse some'ling most unpleasant ,, might have happened." ' [ Scientologists attempt to expand into various fi~elds (schools, prisons, mental health, businesses, ,aria as shall be seen, p~itics) because they believe they nave a method that can and will save this world, and they al- truistically feel they must get as many people as possi- ble to join them or the world ~ill be doomed. The Scientolo~sts are actively trS~ng to increase their number. In one of their recent advertising brochures, 1 they wrote that if every person who took the course would bring in two other people, etc., "this planet would be clear in eighteen months." Hubbard must also be very pleased with the potentialities inherent in the moon landing, since he wrote in Scientology Expansion, "I don't think Scientology ~ill be contained very long on this planet---expansion will be that sv~itt." Another reason that Scientologists are trZ,.ing to get into so manv different areas may be found in their recently revisdd "Code of a Scientolo~st." This code not only states that their goal is to increase their number in the world, but also their strength. Early in Hubbard's career, he claimed that Dianeticians, because of their hiker I.Q.s, would form an aristocracy, and that this elfte corps would subjugate the rest. One sees with some sadness that more than threequarters of the world's population will become sub}oct to the remaining [one-quarter Dianeticians] as a natural consequence and about which we can do exactly nothing. But even if they do want to take over," said one former Scientolo~st, "they can't become dangerous unless they become political and then somebody gives them a government or an army." While the Scientologists may not see themselves as a political force yet, they do consider themselves to be as important as the major political forces today. A 1968 118 TttE SCAND.-VL OF SCIENTOLOGY m~ting from a Scientology Org said that Hubbard would compare the 1965 accomplishments of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with the achievements of ScientoloD'. Hubbard has also hinted that the Russians might like to sec him en their side. In 1964, the Saturday Etching Post reported that Hubbard had sta:ed that he had been approached for the secrets of Scientolo~' by Castro's government. And the Russians, who didn't mind steal- :: ing A./y Fair Lad),, etc., were supposed to have of- ~i fered him 5200,000 for ScientoloD,. C~Vhen he suppos- :i~::i edly turned them down, he claims his apartment was "blasted open" and his "basic manuscript disap- peared.") At other times, Hubbard has also said that ,!,~. i and "large sums" to complete his work under their aus., ~ ! pices. He repeated his charge that they had stolen part of his manuscript in 1942 and the rest of it in 1950, and connected this to his refusal of the Russian's 1938 offer. This 1938 manuscript, by the way, was called Excalibur and Hubbard claims that the first four of fifteen people who read it went insane. Hubbard's interest in politics is not just verbal. In 1962 Hubbard wrote a letter to President Kennedy offegg the sen-ices of Scientolog3' and promising that "Scientology is very easy for the government to put into effect." The letter begins by stating that it is as important as the letter sent to the White HOuse on the subject of the atom bomb, signed by Professor Albert Einstein. To show Kennedy how important he was, and how effective Scientology is, he told him that ScientoloD: had "coached the British Olympic Team with the result that not one team member blew up in the evetits." (Hubbard's Italics) (He did not tell Kennedy that in an early issue of Ability, he had said that only two members of the British pentathlon team had received "Scientolo~7 . . processing.") Hubbard also told Kennedy how the Russians had offered him Pavlov's laboratories, had been stealLug his secrets, etc., and concluded x~th "I feel sure Is Scientology Political? 119 that there exists a growing library on Scientolo~' in Russia." He then told Kennedy not what the countrS.' could do for Scientology, but what Scientolo~' could do for the countD'. "The government only need turn over to us anyone it desires to condition to space flight er nnvone wilose I.Q. it desires to have raised and we giI1 take it from there," Hubbard offered. (At the cost of 56.250 per pilot, although this was not spelled out.) Hubbard added that Scientolo~~ "could decide the space race or the next war in the hands of America" and generously concluded, "This is a duty letter... I do not wish to seem the cause of denying my own government this technology." Hubbard has also been accused of getting entangled with politics while he was in Rhodesia, and, in fact, may have been barred from that country a few x-ears ago. The Daily Mail in England reported that this occurred because the Rhodesian authorities believed he was using the political situation in that country to expand Scientology. At first no one complained: Hubbard had invested nearly $80,000 in Rhodesia; he bouS-.ht a house for a reputed $40,000 and a hotel to "show his confidence in the country and its government"--although they were worthwhile investments for him, too, because Scientology was said to have taken in $25,000 in a cit).' of only 45,000 whites. But the Dally Mail reported that Hubbard all~gedly alienated people by constantly praising Ian Smith, expressing his sympathy for the cause of the white Rhodesians, and exploiting racial prejudices (allegedly by saying that the Africans wouldn't qualify for membership in Scientolo~.c~y because their I.Q. was too low). Such statements, had they ever been widely circulated, would not have made Hubbard popular among Scientolo~sts in America, since Hubbard's constant emphasis of "freedom" and "equality" has auracted a number of American Ne~ocs to the organization. Scientologists may also have tried to get Scientology into the South African government--but in much less 120 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY subtle ways. The Rand Daily Mail reported on June 12, 1969, that one witness told the board of the South African Inquiry that Mr. Parkhouse, Scientolo~"s chief executive there, planned to arm and organize 5,000 Africans to seize control of South Africa. Below is the quote from the newspapcr. "Mr. Parkhouse asked me to pre:ess him on the E-meter" he [the witness] said. "He had just returned from a trip to Mr. Hubbard's headquarters at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, England. While processing him I discovered he had a terrific problem. "Eventually he told me he was worried because he had been made responsible for organizing and arming 5,000 Africans to seize control of South Africa. I talked him out of it and he eventually stopped wording about his instructions." The wtness also told the commission that he did not know what became of Hubbard's plans or of Mr. Parkhouse. In Communication magazine, Hubbard outlined ways that Scientology could get into government. Locate its leaders. Get a paid post as a secretary or offSeer of the staff of the leaders of that race. And by any means, audit them into ability and handle their affairs to bring cooperation... A nation or a state rum on the ability of its de. partment heads, its governors, or an), other leaders. It is easy. to get posts in such areas . . . Don't bother to get elected. Get a job on the secretarial staff or the bodyguard, use any talent one has to get a place close in, go to work on the envkonment and make it function better. The cue in all this is don't seek the, cooperation of groups. Don't ask for permission. Just enter them and start functioning to make the group win through effectiveness and sanity. The Australian Inquiry related the story of a boy who took Hubbard's instructions quite seriously: Is Scientology Political? 121 One preclear who had affiliations with the Austraiian Labor Party saw . . [Hubbard's] Zone PI~ as "a very able plan for infiltration and subversion of the key institutions o[ the country," the intention of the plan behng "to create by those subversive means a ScientoloD' gove,'-nmcnt" and b,e was so enthusiastic about the possibilities which ScientoloO, offered for political domination that he concocted a plan to scientologize the Australia Labor Party. His plan to scientolo~4ze the Australian Labor party concluded as follows: "With Australia led by a government emplo}4ng Scientolo~ principles we should soon have a civilization which can extend influence overseas." He submitted the plan to Hubbard, and supposedly gained his approval. Later, the boy ran into some difficulties with the Labor party and changed his affiliations. Scientologists are obviously political and have tried to get into government positions. Do they also have an interest in getting into the army to realize their ambitions? Who 'knows? It is interesting to note, however, that in a story Hubbard published in Astou~uting Science Fiction magazine when he was in his twenties, he had one of the characters say, "Now you see, if you run the army you are bigger than the army and it won't try to get you." CH,\t'TER SLXTEElSl SCIF~'N'TOLOGY 'VEIISUS ~IEDICI2N_"E. 1) He uses a special machine he claims can ctlrc disease. 2) Hc guarantees a qztivI' cure. 3) He advertises or uses case histories and testimonials. 4) He re/uses to accept the proved methods of medicai research. 5) He sa3.'s medical men' are persecuting him or are a/raM of his competition. 6) He balieves that his methods are better than sztr.C, ery. x-ra).'s, or drugs. 7) He uses high sounding titles easily codused with qualified scientific professionals and organizations. --"How to Spot a l~.Iedical Quack" by the American Medical Association. AlthouS~h Scientolo~sts claim that they are not in competition with medical fields, much Scientolo~ energy has been devoted in the past few vears to attacking doctors, and especially ps.x'chiatrists. hubbard and Scientolo~ have never been too fond of the medical profession. Eric Barnes, Public Relations Chief of the New York Church allegedly told writer Howard Eisenberg about a boy whose broken leg had healed in two weeks instead of six through Scientolo~o2~. Barnes was said to have c/aimed that doctors were so skeptical, "they broke it again to investigate the phenomenon." 123 124 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY Scientolo~sts are not permitted to take aspirins be- fore auditing, or "receive any 'treatment' 'guidance' or 'help' from anyone in the 'healing arts' i.e., physicians or dentists ~ithout consent," except in extreme emer- gencies when no one in the Church can be reached~ But Hubbard's feelings toward doctors, and psychiatrists are . a bit ambivalent, because while rai!ing against them, he ~i:' offers a rift3' percent reduction to an5 doctor or psychia- trist taking a Scientology course. Since Scientologists ~! are not supposed to "mix ScionroleS' with any other practice," his goal appears to be to get them to become Scientologists. '}7':'!'~ ,---/ Hubbard is convinced, actually obssessed with the delusion, that psychiatrists kill or tomre their patients with electric shock .treatment, use them sexually, and never ever help them. Hubbard wrote, "We have never ~i' t found one person cured by psychiatrists, not one. If ' they call, as they do, anyone w~o disa~ees with them insane, then those who agree with this human butchery . should wear a swastika arm band so we can reco~mzize It 'them." Hubbard's hostility to the medical profession was ap- parent in the first story he wrote for Astottnding Science Fiction in the late 1930's. The stor3., told about a man who had the m'o halves of his brain sewn up by doctors. At the beginning, Mth one glance the man could heal an3~mg. Later this miracle of surgery boomeranged and the man could kill with the same glance. In other words, the doctors had given him an e~41 eye. This hos- tility also goes back to his first book. Below is a portion of an alleged case study: .. the mental hospital gets our patient and the doctors there decide that all he needs is a good solid series of electric shocks to tear his brain up, and ff that doesn't work, a nice ice-pick into each eyeball after and during electric shock... Our pa- tient can't defend himself; he's insane and the in- sane have no rights, you know. Scientology Versus Medicine 125 Only the cavalry . arrived in the form of Dianetics... Although Scientolo~sts claim they are not in compe.-. tition with analysts, they have tried to lure ~ople away from them: "A complete Freuddan an~ysis can cost SS.000-S15,000. Better results can be achieved in Scientolo~' for S125, and on a group basis for a few doilars." But their primary method of divep~g people from psychiatrists and psychotherapy is not so subtle. Scientolo~sts have actively tried to discedit their "competition," and in a manner so libelous that it is hard to believe that the epithets and accusations Scien- tologists hurl come from the same group that once sued everyone else for libel. Nonetheless, the Sdentologists blithely refer to members of what they call "the weird cult of psychiatry"--although Scientologists say that they resent being called a "cult"--as "p~-choracket- eers," "insidious psychopoliticians, ....mental con men" "frauds," "pimps," etc., who spend their time "giving away free supplies of marijuana and LSD," "banding together with the Better Business Bureau to stop Scientolo~," "killing, maiming and tormrimg helpless patients," "castrating them," and practicing "mental murder and sexual perversion" [sic]. In a memo to a private investigator, urging him to investigate psychiatrists, Hubbard allegeclly wrote: 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... In "A Warning to Brain Butchers," his landage was even stronger. Hubbard telegraphed the following "news" to the New York Scientology headquarters to tell them his views on psychiatrists. THEIR 19TH CENTURY lx, q~ETHODS MUST END. THEY ACT LIKE THE MAD SCIENTISTS IN A BAD MOVIE. THE TRLqi MEDICAL DOCTOR IS ASHAMED TO BE ASSO- 126 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTDLOGY CIATED WITH THEM. THE PSYCHIATRIC IDEA OF MAN IS A GODLESS SOULLESS PIECE OF MEAT.* THEY DEMAND THEIR RIGHTS TO BUTCHER AT WILL. THEY MOCK CHRISTIAN SENTBIENT. ACCORDING TO THEM EVERYONE IS HOPELESSLY M~M) AND AGONE WHO OPPOSES THEM IS ESPECIALLY SO. YET WHERE ARE THEIR CURES? THEY ONLY HAVE VICTIMS. THEY TORTURE AND KILL OUT OF li.~ SIGHT IN THEIR INSTITUTIONS. SCIENTOL- ~, ~/ i,~'~i OGY ORGANIZATIONS OVER THE PLAN- ~ ET ARE URGING LAWS WHICH FORBD ; KILLING OR INJURING THE INSANE. ! MURDER IS MURDER. ~ Besides being murderers, madmen, butchers, etc., the Scientologists also accuse p~ychiatrists of working with the government to control the populace: Using their connections with government "givea- ' way" agencies, the psychoracketeers are being pro- vided with billions... as well as free supplies of marijuana and LSD with which to continue their "research" on helpless psychiatric victims deprived of their rights by laws passed by these same insidi- ous psychopoliticians. i By educating the public that everyone needs mental health treatment, they hope to be able to ~ control 'the morals, mores and the lives of the en- tire nation. Scientologists believe that the psychiatrist's ultimate goal is "domination of every man, woman and child through the use of 'mental health' indoctrination pro- grams even now being promoted and promulgated down to a prenatal level." The last words are an interesting slip, since it is the Scientologists and not the psychia- * Although Hubbard says that the psychiatrist thinks of his patients as a "piece of meat" the reader is reminded that Hubbard calls newcomers in Scientology "raw meat" Scientology Versus Medicine 127 trists who believe that the prenatal period is so important. Scientolo~sts are not just sitting back and waiting for people to join them in their crusade against the "'killers.'' They are activdv soliciting people in America, England and Australia who have undergo:e "serious mental or physical ab~se or damages at ~e hands of psychiatric frauds" to contact their nearest Church of ScientoloD' and make a full report to fneir Human Ri~ts Commission. They will probably find people ~illing to do so, especially since those who have been hospitalized might prefer to believe that psychiatric treatment was the cause of their problems rather than the result of it, exonerating themselves of all responsibility. The result of this carnpai~, though, could have an unfortunate effect for the Scientolo~sts. Inviting people who have had psychiatric treatment or been institutionalized to join them in their crusade may make Scientology the world's largest out-patient clinic for mentally disturbed people. Scientolog is also fiSZating the mental lie~ movemenks with litigation, and they claim they have filed or are ready to file, $75 ion worth of suits ag~inst psychiatric organizations and others over the world "in the international conspiracy against Scientolog- for libel, slander, conspiracy and psyckdatric efforts to destroy the Church." Scientolo~sts have said that if they won the suits and all the money was paid up, it would make ScientoloD' among the richest of religious organizations. They pointed out that all damage monies are tax free, and said that the money would be used to try to "straighten out some of the honor psychiatrS.' has made in the field of mental healing." Although they have not outlined how this would be done, presumably it would be attempted with Scientol%,'y techniques. Scientology is also fighting the mental health field by trying to change the laws. They claim to be preparing an Anti-Butchery Bill for introduction into ConFess. The purpose of this bill is to make it a felony to use 128 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGy psychiatry, psychology, drugs, or shock treatment to change any individual's religious, philosophical or political ideas. From this last statement, along with many others, it is apparent that Scientology, which started during uhe McCarthyire '50's is still Favelv concerned , with the menace of Communism and fie dansets of secret brainwashing--even thouL-h one of the' ct~:estions on their own security test reacfi: "Are you in aisagreemeat with any of the stable data of Scier/tolo.~,7" The Australian Report dealt with the ~iuestion of whether or not Scientology was a form of brainwashing. It said that "The Board heard expert psychiatric evidence fiat repetitive questions and repetitive commands increase suggestibility and, ff continued long enough, may reach the point where indoctrination could be elfeeted, and a reversal of opinions and ideas pre~%usly held could be obtained." The Australian Board was also disturbed to find that Scientology techniques closely resemble those set out in a book entitled Brainwashing which is supposed to be "A 7Synthesis of the Communist Textbooks on Psvcho-politics." They claimed that e'ddence was presented to indicate "that the En~lish version of the manual bears a startling resemblance to Hubbard's own literary style." But they stated that it was immaterial whether or not he wrote the book "as was suggested by a witness hostile to Scientology." What was important to them was that Scientologists "assiduously sold and distributed this manual?' In fact, one of the exhibits brought to the Board was an extract from the Brainwashing manual with Scientology words substituted. "With these substitutions effected, the extracts were in the main start:ling!y applicable to Scientoloev as operating in Victoria." ~' Scientologists are also fighting mental health organi.nations by allying themselves ~th Churches, and working on a campaign to get psychiatric patients to see their "pastor" instead of a psychiatrist. They have quoted Dr. Karl Menninger, co-founder of the famous Memainger Sciet7tolog3' Versus Medicine 129 clinic, who allegedly said that many people who go to psychiatrists should take their problems instead to a "minister of religion." ff Menninger did say this, it is extremely doubtful that he was refe~ing to Scientolo~', especially since his brother, the late Dr. William Mennip. get. once said that Hubbard's systems and icieas "can pc~tentialiy do a Feat deal of harm." The Scientologists have also tried to fight the mental health movement by what appears to be simply trying to take it over. In England, a number of Scientolo~sts made an attempt to fill the vacancies in the National Association of Mental Health, most notably David Gaiman to fill the post of Chairman, after the retirement of Lord Balniel. In addition, Scientologists flooded the association Mth applications for membership. They might have made it, except that NAj\ffI members became suspicious as they received 250 applications instead of their normal rate of about twentZj a month. Furthermore, it was noticed that almost all of the two guinea postal orders were issued by the East Grinstead Post Office. The National Association of Mental Health wrote letters asking the Scientolo~sts to resign (according to David Gaiman the3' were "expelled"), and Gaiman, the Scientolo~' spokesman in Endand, offered to withdraw if the Association instituted certain reforms. Eventually the Scientolo~sts managed to stop the annual meeting of the NAMH wl-file they paraded outside, asking for, among other things, a public inquiry into conditions in mentM hospitals. What is the Scientologist's goal in all this? Is the crusade of this "Church" against a nonreli~ous field based on a sincere abhorrence of its methods? Are they really so concerned about conditions in mental hospitals, since, after all, they claim Scientologists have never been there, and for that matter, never end up there? Is it an attempt to discredit their "competition" so that people will go to Scientologists instead? Is it a vindictive act to get back at groups whose criticism against them seems to be quite mild, if one considers what the Scien- 130 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY ologists have had to say about them? Is there some psy- chiatric kistory in Hubbard's own past that has caused this incredible vendetta? Or are they amxious to divert attention away from inquiries into Scientolo~, by trying to get an inquiry into conditions in mental hospitals7 It is true that attacks against psychiatr3' have intensified as public inquiries into Scientolo~' have been established. ~: Hubbard ~Tote the following in Freedom: . Instead of attacking Churches and independent re- search, Governments should... inquize into the abuses... by psychiatry .... For psychiatric or- ,~ . ~ :~,, ganizations to criticize Scientolo~ Ls the most fan- ~ :!~i!i taste h>q3ocrisy on Earth. These men are not heal- :-i !!~ L2:', ers, they are trained killers. 'i.lrii).',,Perhaps their reasons for wanting an inquiry into men- i!~:Sii!' i!, they have offered to sit in on the inquiry, and possibly !~=, contribute, "as part of our charitable work." !~., ~ i Ment~ health organ~atio~s ha,'e t=ken an ,,.,: tolerant view of the whole situation, probably hoping that like the pla~e, the Sciento!ogists will evenmall3, disappear. They may also fear that if they attack Scien- tology they might give it publicit3' and draw more atten- tion to it. Thus, ff someone calls and asks the Ajaaerican Psychiatric Association whether to go into Scientolog or psychiatry, they do not try to convert them to psychi- atry. Instead they sometimes send them Scientological literature against psychiatry, hoping that they would be appalleeL at the epithets and accusations and make a deci- sion from that. The following quote from the Asnerican . Psychiatric Associadon's lively Psychiatric News is not the official policy of the APA, but it presents one opin- ion of how to handle this situation: x, Vell, it's a religion of course. It is for you to de- cide whether to join the Church. ff you wonder ~ whether it has anything to do with psychiatric ~; treatment the answer is no. You might also like to ~, know that it costs a si~ificant sum to be "proc- Scientology Versus Medicine 131 essed" in the Church. And if you would like my personal opinion as a fellow American, I wouldn't be cau.zht dead entering its doors. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN THE SECRET SCIENTOLOGY SESSIONS In Dianetics; todc"s obvious nervous breakdown is tomorrow's most cheer/ul being. --I. Ron Hubbard Scientolo~' is perhaps a religion, is probably a philosophy, is definitely a business, is potentially a political force, and is also a form of therapy, or as they call it now, pastoral counseling. Most people do not realize this, since the Scientolo~sts draw attention only to the idea that they are a reli~on and a philosophy. Thus, they have been able to keep the public in the dark about what is happening--and they have also been largely able to avoid public outcry. Scientologists have dex4sed a :eries of methods that they believe can and will save this "enturbulated" world. Some of their practices-those that have been widely criticized, such as disconnecting, suppressives, investigations--are based on their belief that anyone who questions, criticizes or tries to stop Scientology from utilizing these methods is harming not only themselves but the world. Scientolo~sts try to keep their methods of pastoral counseling a very strict secret. V~q3ile this shields them from criticism, it also makes doctors doubtful as to its efficacy. "Suppose Newton had founded a Church of Newtontan physics and refused to show his formula to anyone who doubted the tenets of Newtoninn physics?" ~q:ote William Burroughs. (In an earlier stage, when 133 134 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY BurrouS~hs was apparently more enchanted with Scicntolo~', he x~Tote "There is nothing secret about ScientoloD', no talk of initiates, secret doctrin~ or hidden knowledge.") But only someone who takes advanced Scientolo~, courses or "~ades" can find out what Scientology methods are. If anx- Scientoior. ist divulges these secrets after he takes the courses. hc is subject to expulsion. But even though he doesn't know what the courses are until he takes them. he must a~ee that they are correct in advance and cannot question them. "It's like a physicist saying 'you can't see my formulae unless you first a~ee that they are correct sirtint unseen,'" said Burroughs. Some of these secret sessions are done with the Emeter, although other sessions consist of a series of exercises to "raise the preclear's ability." When working with the meter, the auditor may first show the preclear the auditing room and ask if there is anything about it that upsets him. The preclear may also be told to remove his watch and wedding ring to prevent interference by outside metals. Then the auditor and proclear face each other in chairs, with the E-meter on a table between them. The auditor watches the needle of the meter, and if it reacts in a manner that he believes indicates that an engam is present, the auditor repeats the question until the needle "floats," which presumably means that the engam has been "erased." The preclear, who canpot see the dials, does not have to accept the word of the auditor to determine whether an engam is really gone. Hubbard stated that when a patient succeeds in erasing an engram, he will feel a sense of wild elation--which explains, perhaps, why when one Scientologist got rid of an engram, he laughed for two days without stopping. During these sessions, the auditor does not tell the preclear to free associate, as is done in psychoanalysis, but rather he is told to return to a specific incident, say one that caused grief, anger, fear, humiliation. The preclear then tries to determine the date of the incident, The Secret Scientologa' Sessions 135 and if he cannot, picks an approximate date and keeps reeling off dates until the E-meter reacts. Once the preclear has found the date. he must then go to the beginnin.o of the incident and tell the entire stoU', repeating it malay times until all the details become clear. Bv the end ~/'~ th:~t time, the story supposedly loses its emotional charge and is no longer a source of problems or pain. At the ~nd of each session, the preclear may be made to focus his attention on five or sLx objects in the room, presumably to bring him back to realitS', before he is permitted to leave. Some sessions end more formally with the auditor saying, "Tell me I am no longer auditing you," at which point the preclear says, "You are no longer auditing me." if during these sessions a proclear has a particular problem he wishes to discuss, he is permitted to talk about it but only briefly. Then, instead of working on it, he may be told to .invent a problem of comparable magnitude, to lie about the problem he has, or even to invent a worse problem. There is a strong tendency durin~ these sessions not to tall: about present problems at al~. For example, Hubbard wrote the following to show auditors what to do if the proclear had what they call a "present-time" problem. AUDITOR: What do you think is ~Tong With you? i~RECLEAR: I'm impatient. AUDITOR: Can you think of someone who's:im* patient? PRECLEAR: My father. AUDITOR: O.K. We'll run a father. But most of these sessions are devoted to past-time incidents or even past-life incidents. The preclear, while holding onto the cans of the E-meter, will be made to answer two or three questions asked repeatedly during the auditing session. For example, several sessions may be devoted to-alternating commands, like "recall something real .... recall a communication," and '~recall an emotion." In other sessions they may be told to "recall 136 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY a loss," "recall a raisemotion." "tell me a problem," ~ "tell me a solution," Or "~qqat have you said?", "What have you done9 .... What are you ~11ing to tell me ~: - , ~ 745 about?", "~Vhat are you ,ailling to tell me about it?", I "What is the problem?", "What is the solution? ....\Xq~at have you doneT', and "What haven't you said?" In other sessions, the person has been asked ques- tions or ordered to do thins that to an outsider seem to make far less sense, for example to "not know" some- thing, to put things in the ~TOng time and place, and even to deny the existence of objects around him, so ~ ~ that portions of the environment, such as the walls or the door have disappeared in his mind. The preclear has also had to answer such questions as "Who isn't hereT", "What aren't you thinking?", "~'here don't you have a headacheT", "Have you a headache in last week?", "Was your body in 1210 while you were going to col- lege in 19407" Many Scientolo~' sessions are devoted entirely to ex- ercises guaranteed to raise the preclear's "ability." One series of exercises may be done outside of the auditing room. For example, kientolojsts have or- dered an unconscious person, or a new born baby to "Lie in bed. Thank you." They once reported doing this for several hours to an unconscious Scientologist, until they were kicked out of the hospital. (The patient later died.) The reason for this seemingly strange exercise is twofold.' ~qaile it may seem odd to be telling something to an unconscious person, they believe the thetan is always conscious and the person is thus able to hear it. Second- ly, one of the principles of auditing is to find something a preclear can do and then better that ability--and ob- viously an unconscious person or baby is able to lie in a bed. Hubbard also wrote that he once cured a drunk on this principle--he had him invent new ways to get drunk! The first Scientolo~ course for $15 consists Of two days or four evenings of the follow'rag exercises or "Training Routines" or T.R.'s, as they call them there. The Secrez Scientolo~.' Sessions 137 ,,n~c~^,-~,ion" Scientolo~sts sit In the first T.R., ~ .............two a few feet apart and simply stare in each others' eyes without moving, twitching, blinking, giggling, si~o__1'dng, fidgeting. for a minimum of an hour. (It is khis exercise that helps Scientolo~sts learn how to stare intensely at others.) The second~T.R. is called "Bull Baiting" and it is somewhat similar; one Scientologist ag~dm stares directly at the other without mo~qng, only this time the other partner tries to make the immobile one "flinch" or react bv insulting him, humoring him, taunting him, or leading'him on--usually about his physical flaws or sexual problems. In a third T.R., called "Dear Alice" one Scientolo~st keeps repeating lines from Alice in Wonderiand while his partner "acknowledges him." For example, one asks "Do cats eat bats?", or says "Imperial Fiddlesticks" and the other says "thank you" or "groovy." (It is said that in one eastern city, they decided to send an undercover policeman to investigate Scientolo~. The policeman spent several days repeating lines from Alice in Wonderland and being thanked for it.) In m'o other T.R.'s, one Scientologist keeps asking his partner '~Do fish s~irn?" or "Do birds fly?" while the partner tries to make him "flinch" or become distracted as he did in the "Bull Baiting." For example: Student: Do fish swim? Coach: Yes. Student: Good, Coach: Do fish swim? Student: Aren't you hungry? Coach: Yes. Student: [You] flunkled] While the purpose of these exercises may be elusi~'e, they are actually supposed to teach someone to get commands across naturally, to get the answer to the question that he wants, to ask questions in a fsesh manner, and not to start a second question until the first has been answered, etc. During a weekend I spent research- !~. 138 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGy ~Zi ing ScientoloD,, I did these five exercises. I certainlv ad- i~ mire the amazing perseverance of Scientologists wtlo do : these Training Routines since the3- are unbelievably tit- ; ing and boring. "Confrontation." for example is a ni~ht- : mare. If done correctly. without blinking or thinkin~ or ~ anything. it induces halducinations. ~,Vhen I had to do it, iiii my first reaction upon staring at my partner was to laugh, but within a few minutes I reallv wanted to crv. EyeD'thing was itching eveD?lace' ~Niv muscles kebt ., re'itching while the rest of my body felt' stiffer than the i wooden chair I was on. After a while, my eyes started t,~k ,. ~' to blur, and then so did my mind, and I watched in hor- ror as my parmer turned into a breathing Rorschach card. His eyes, eyelashes and brows met, his nostrils i' merged and became a cruel, flaring cavern in the center : of his face, and the shadows cast by this disfi~gured nose ~, gave his entire face a sinister and terrifying quality. ' "Bull Baiting" was not much better. I was first as- si~tmed to make someone else "flinch," but I was the one who flinched the minute I laid mv eves on him. There was nothing I couldn't insult him'abZaut--f:rom the top of his too-tiny head to the bottom of his hundred pound ~ five-foot frame. He had a Pinocchio-type nose, closely }~! set black beady eyes, parched thin lips, large red ears, a . scattering of post-adolescent pimples, and a chin like a slightly used rapier. I couldn't bear to insult someone as unattractive as he who must have been hurt often throughout his fife. But the Scientolo~, leader and the assistant of the group both put me down for this. They i. ' also showed me how to do it: the leader described each of the boy's faults in what must have been agonizing de-tail; the assistant, however, told him how handsome, tall, clear-skinned etc. he was. V~aen it was mv turn to be baited, I was naturally braced for the worsi. But to my surprise, instead of picking on my faults or flaws, or "buttons" as they called it there, my male partners tried to make me "flinch" by talking about sex, and their incredible obscenities and explicit descriptions of the amazing variety of perversions they wanted to practice The Secret Scientolo~' Sessions 139 with me made them sound dis~_ffustingly sin'filar to an obscene telephone caller without the benefit of a telephone. The Scientolo~sts also used the bull baiting exercise to find out if I was a writer. They sent a~',. advanced Scientolo~st to bull-bait me. ~,~,iaile at first he chatted aimlessly. all of a sudden, he thrust his face a quarter of an inch from mine, looked directly into mv eyes, and said, ominously, "We've been watching you since you first came in here. We think you're really a ~Titer." He kept questioning me repeatedly, while all the color drained my face. So I purposely threw my eves slightly out of focus, fixed my gaze an inch above his eyes, and concentrated intently on what it would be like to kiss him, hoping this would imbue my features with an acceptable amount of disgust and despair and I wouldn't "flinch." It worked and he finally changed the subject, like the others, to sex. He was so filthy, he made the obscenities of the earlier "bull bailers" sound as if they'd come from pre-pubescent children. His final statement was to ask me whether I'd like to join the Scientologists "in some of the Feat or~es we have over here on Tuesday [or Thursday, I forget] night." I'm sorry I can't report to you whether that last statement is true or not, because I wanted to get out of that world as fast as I could, and had no desire to attend an "org-y" at the org. In all fairness, howe~'er, I must say that these TRs, howex, er tedious (I mean how often can you ask someone "do bkds fly?" w~thout feeling that you're about ready to also?) did have some benefit for me. They helped teach me to talk with my voice and not with my hands, to acknowledge somebody's statements before I rambled on with my own, to look people straight in the eye, and to be more persistent with someone when I wanted to get an answer from him. And it is probably not the fault of Scientolog2~.~ but my own incorri~bility that none of these effects lasted five minutes past that ScientoloD, weekend. 140 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY The relation between the exercise and its purpose is i bit more obscure in other sessions. ~ In one exercise called "Holding Comers," the person !s supposed to visualize the two comers of the room and ~ hen "hold them" there, thinking of nothing else. For .o~e reason, this is supposed to make you act younger. Another exercise consists of "con;~ronting" ~'arious parts of the body: Auditor: ~,~2at part of that body can you con- t'i~ front? ;. Proclear: The elbow. li l! Preclear: The wrist. Auditor: Thank you. Many ScientoloF exercises consist of hours and hours of repetitive commands, not only like the above, but like the following. The auditor says to the preclear: Do you see that book? Walk over to it. Pick it up. Not know something about its color. Not know something about is temperature. Not know something about its weight. Do you see that bottle? Walk over to it. Pick it up. Not tmow something about its color. Not know something about its temperature. Not know something about its weight. Do you see that book? Etc. Hubbard said the above should be done "without... lag, without protest, without apathy, but only cheerfulness, each time seeing the items newly." He also said it was better to run this consecutively for several hours, rather than run it a short time for several days. One preclear was run for nine hours on the above without any breaks! Mother Scientolo~ exercise is called "S.C.S." (Stop, The Secret Scientoto~' Sessions 141 Change, Start). Mos'~ ScientoloD' courses are ~ven on levels, and in the be_tinning of S.C.S., the preclear must move small objects ~-ound a table, stop them, change their 'direction, etc., "quickly and accurately without protest" at the audkor's command. On higher levels, a person is commanded to get out of his body, since Scientolojsts believe that the thetan or spirit can function apart from the bcxtv. To accomplish this, the preclear is first told to "be t:nree feet in back of your head" and then told to be in more and more difficult places "until he can sit in the center of the sun." This exercise was severely criticized by the Australian Inquiry, and in 1965, the Scientolo~sts told them that it was no longer being run. (However, in 1970, abook was for sale at the Washington D.C. Org telling auditors about S.C.S.) It has been criticized because its effects can be devastating. Hubbard wrote that "If a preclear is about to fly out of his head he'll fly out of his he~d on S.C.S. If he does fly out of his head on S.C.S. or on any other process, you, of course, continue the process." He also wrote of S.C.S. that if a preclear suddenly "flies to pieces," started "flip flopping" and had to be picked up off the floor, etc., that the auditor should immediately get him back on to his feet and into the session. "This is no time for you to be chanjng processes simply because a preclear collapses," he ~TOte. All these exercises, and even E-meter sessions for recounting incidents in the real or imagined past, can be extremely tiring and difficult. Some people even think it is dangerous. The Australian Report commented on this as ~ollows: . . during this, the prectear is very frequently experiencing mental torture, which shows itsel[ in contorted and flushed features, tears, moaning, inability to speak, apparent deafness, nausea, dizziness, sensations of pain, coma and unconsciousness. One witness said that he almost killed his auditor, a close personal friend, who was ques- ' tioning him about withholds [non-disclosed itemsl 142 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY he had as to "sex5' thoughts" concerning a female staff member... Sometimes preclears are so distraught that they scream, develop murderous feelings, have bouts of anger, grief and morbid feeIings and thoughts; their sexual passions are aroused, they act insanely, laugh h.x's~erically ~d engage in other hysterical behavior; they become violent and try to escape and have to be restrained .. In ScientoloD, parlance, when such manifestations as these occur, the preclear is being "restimu- i lated"; in fact, he is being debased and mentally crippled. Hubbard was aware that a preclear might have these ~ ~ reactions, but warned auditors to continue nonetheless. Hubbard said that if a preclear begged his auditor not to make him talk about someone's death "that is the first engram he should get." Hubbard wrote: .. when the preclear is apparently in the most intense pain... you must calmly continue to run the incident, asking for any phrases connected with the ["~!: .;~ incident, and picking up all sounds, sense of touch, and kinesthesia as they appear... And then, when the incident seems to be over, and the pain has subsided, command the somatie strip to go to the beginning of the incident and roll it again!... Pay no attention to any efforts he may make to avoid going throu~ a second or third firne. Perhaps' it is not surprising that S.CS. 'has sometimes been given as punishment--and one person said he had !- been "sentenced" to S.CS. for twenty-five hours for some infraction. The Australian Report devoted an entire chapter to another danger they saw in these sessions--hypnosis. The concluded that these various exercises were a type of hypnosis. To support their h~Tyothesis, they listed every aspect of the Scientology auditing session along with its hypnotic counterpart. They also mentioned the fact that Hubbard admits he was "schooled in hypnotism and mysticism" although Hubbard claims he doesn't The Secret ScientotoD' Sessions 143 use hypnotic techniques. The Australian Re,tort concluded that Hubbard does use h.x]3notic techniques but that he has simply changed the name of various hypnotic phenomena to names of his oxx~ invention. The report pointed out tt~2: it was a common practice for Scientology auditors to ask the preclear at the end of the session whether he had achieved his goals and was satisfied with that session. Since they believed that the auditor was asking these questions when the preclear was coming out of a "hypnotic trance," while the "hypnotic rapport" with the auditor was in effect, the post hypnotic suggestions helped the preclear to believe that the goals had been obtained and that the session was successful. After the session was over, the "surestion" fiat the session was a success could still persist. The Scientolo~sts believe hhese exercises have helped them, while the Australian Inquiry concluded they've been used to hypnotize them. CFL~PTER EIGHTEEN THE E-3IETER The E-meter is never l~'ron.9. It sees dl; it ktzows all. It tells evcD'thirzg. --L. Ron Hubbard An important part of a Scientolo~3, auditing session is the E-meter. It lures people into Scientolo~.% and, for some, gives a scientific basis to the methods used. Scientolo~sts are accepted or expelled according to its revelations. It helps to extract the Scientolo~sts' most intimate secrets and confessions, including those of a sexual and criminal nature. It helps to determine the len~h, intensity and nature of the auditing session. It helps to determine the date and details of their present problems and their past lives. In fact, the E-meter often determines whether they have had past lives. If someone believes he hasn't lived before, but the E-meter does not respond to a date in the person's current life, then he is led to believe that the event must have hal> pened in a past one. The E-meter or electroencephaloneuromentirnograph is about ten inches by sLx inches by two inches and its appearance was described by one reporter as a "cross between a car speedometer and a practical joker's electric shock machine." Hubbard usually refers to its inventor as "Mathison" and Scientologists will tell you it was invented by Olin Mathison; actually it was invented by Volney Mathison, a chiropractor. To buy the ma- 145 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY chine at an Org costs about $162; in 1963 the governmcnt determined that it cost only S12.50 to make, and that the Scientology organizations bou~t it wholesale for $47. Even at this price. the Scientolo~sts and Hubbard will tell you that it's infallible. It is said that it never fails to pick out the date on which an incident occurred. Scientolo~sts ~ill tell you to the exact second when something happened to them a trillions of years ago. Apparently, it is less than perfect in picking dates in their current life. Its failure in this task is what caused author Alan Levy, who wrote a piece on Scientology for Lije magazine, to become disenchanted with the organization. (Along with the fact that his New York contract said Grades V-Vff would cost him $390 at Saint Hill, but when he got there he discovered it was $3,150 "plus living expenses.") Alan Levy's problems in Scientology started when he was told to use the E-meter to locate the date on which he had a fight with his wife. (Present one, current life.) Without the meter, he knew the 3'ear was 1958, and that it was a Sunday morning in March. Although he suggested to his auditor that the3' consult a calendar, he i! was told, "There's no need for that... The E-meter will find out for us." The meter "found out" that the :!' fi~t occurred on March 18. But when Alan Lew ~i checked an almanac at a bookstore in East Grinsteaci, he discovered that March 18, 1958 fell on Tuesday, not ; Sunday.' It seems pathetic to me still, and terribly precari- ous, that my failure to perform so simple a jour- nalistic chore--under other circumstances I would have automatically looked up the date--could have kept me half tied to ScientologS.~, the deep- probing auditing sessions and the damned E-meter .. I am sure that among the millions of words... [Hubbard] has written, there are some to con- vince me that the engram I unlocked did happen on a Tuesday--in another life--or that March 18 The E-Meter 147 did fall on a Sunday when I was in the womb. But thankfully it no longer matters. A number of government witnesses in the Food and Drug Adminlstration's case against the meter also azreed that its functioning was considerablv less than perfect. George Montgomery, Chief of the Mensin-emeat Engineering Di~5.sion of the Nation~ Bureau e5 Standards, and Dr. John I. Lacey. Chairman of the Department of Psychophysiology and NeurophysioloD, at Fels Research Institute in Yellow Sprin~, stated that the E-meter "failed to meet the commonly accepted criteflon by which such an instrument is judged." This was because 1 ) the E-meter has no device to control the constancy of current 2) Holding a can in the hand per-. miLL great variations in the area of the skin in contact with the metal electrodes, and would allow great variation in the amount of actively sweaty tissue that is in contact with it 3 ) The instrument is subject to polarization 4) It is not a quantitative instrument due to uncontrollable variations in skin contact and current. These experts also explained that the machine was not really a measure of skin resistance at all, but partially a reading of how firmly the individual was ~asping the can; if the person squeezed the can, there was more contact, and apparent skin resistance would drop. If he held the cans loosely, the apparent skin resistance would simply increase. Scientologists, on the other hand, claim that the Emeter is so sensitive that it will react not only when a person is holding onto it, but also when it is placed on a tomatc~--garden variety that is. W~le some people would view this as an argument against the meter, Scientologists feel that this proves its validity and that it also supports their hypothesis that plants have feelin~ like humans. Scientolo~sts have admirably gone to the trouble to research a number of experiments in this field and have presented them to the public in their newspapers and press releases. These experiments were as follows: 1) Dr. Erwin Kapphan, in Zurich, "using a sensi- 4~ : i ~.; ! 148 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY ..i~;! 2'~ tive version of the skin galvanometer" ("similar to the E-meter used in Scientolo~' confessionals" said the !~';ii:: press release) showed that a tomato, when pierced with a nail, showed "definite emotional anxiety reactions" similar to those of humans. Kapphan also said that ~pl,n.nts only catch a disease or btight if they are already thinking o{ dying." 2) Dr. Bernard Grad, at McGill !::~ University in Montreal, conducted the experiments ~ ,': x~'hich showed that plants fertilized by a solution that had been ~ven a flow of attention by a well-known faith healer with acknowledged extrasensor)' powers grew Rex Standord, of Duke University showed that plants significantly faster and bigger than other plants. 3) Dr. which are shown love, affection and lots of warm attention grow "demonstrably faster and bigger." The press !!i i: release contained no information about the statistical lev- els of significance of these experiments, or even how the experiments were carried out (for example, how did they give "love" or a "flow of attention" to a plant?) nor how the results were analyzed (how does a tomato show "definite emotional anxiety reactions"? etc.) They simply stated, in a rather unscientific but sincere manner, that three experiments proved beyond doubt that Hubbard's theory (and by extension, the E-meter) was valid. "After ten years of ridicule for his theory... L. Ron Hubbud has finally been vindicated... totally validated... it was about time." The reader may decide for himself whether the Emeter proves that plants feel pain, have emotional anxi- i ~ ely reactions, grow faster when given a flow of attention by a faith healer, etc.,---or whether to accept the word of the chairman of the Department of Psychophysiology and Neurophysiology at one institute and the Chief of the Medical En~4neering Division that the E-meter is x~ot an accurate instrument for measuring the flow of electricity. But if you choose the latter, just remember that you cannot argue your position with the Scientologists. They claim that the E-meter registers the thetan, v~hich they believe may have an electrical voltage, and The E-x~tcter 149 since no non-Scientolo~dst has ever seen a t~h. ctan, much less checked it for electricit3', how can anyone possibly disprove this theorS'? CI-L~PTER NINETEEN TIlE HIGH COST OF SCIENTOLOGY It's the only Church I've ever seen ~,ith a cashicr's booth. --a woman who quit after one session. --Time . When people first enter this exciting world of the totally free, they rarely realize just how expensive it is going to be. After all, the first course costs only $15, and for that price one gets close to sixteen hours of Scientology. ~,Vhat people usually don't realize is that they will never see this $1-an-hour rate again. Later it'll be more like $25, and sometimes more. One man who paid $1,200 in advance for a 50 hour course completed it in 20 minutes, which meant he spent about $1 a second for auditing. Scientolo~ has m'o goals, and two t>~pes of courses to match: "auditino" people or "processing"; and teaching people to audit others or "training." The first series on the Hubbard hierarchy, auditing or processing, consists of several courses or grades, which enable a "preclear" to become a "clear." If each course is taken separately, it costs approximately (the prices are always changing) $750 just to go from O-IV grade, $500 for the next one, 51,200 for Grade V ("Power Processes"), 5775 for Grade VI, $600 for "Solo" (in which you audit yourself) and finally $800 for the final "clear" or a total of approximately 54,625, althou~ package 151 i '~; i 152 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGy ~z '~ deals bring the price down a bit lower. But that's not all, since one can also go ei~t levels beyond "clear" to achieve the state of "Operating Thetan ~;'III"--for only $2,850 more. An Operating Thetan, by the way, is someone who can function apart from his body, and OTs (Operating Thetans) are ;aid to be able to li~t tele- ~ phones off the hook in another room and read books wkile some distance away from them. The value of : this accomplishment may not be readilx' apparent, but ; one practical Scientologist claimed she'could visit her parents in Texas while her body remained in Washing- ton, D.C. Fortunately for the travel industry, not too many Scientologists can do this. But processing or auditing is only haft the story. Scientolo~ also trains its followers to audit others. To qualify for this doesn't even require a high school edu- ii cation--just another prescribed series of Scientolo~ ~ ~: courses. Scientologists generally suggest people start with this series, and, in fact, unless specifically asked, they don't even tell them about the prices of the other "~i group until later. This second group starts at a modest ~,. $15 for the first course, $30 for the next, S45 for the . :, third, and then suddenly leaps to their more typical rate of $1,300. It generally takes at least a couple of months to become an .,-,ditor, although ~entologists have ;, boasted that they can train some people to become au- !iF' ditors "in less than m'enty minutes." Those who wish to take more courses must go'the the special Scientology ' . academies in Los Angeles, Scotland or Saint HiLl and pay additional expenses for room, board, books, equip- ment and transportation besides. ',i In addition to the price of the courses, there are ~! many other expenses. A Scientologist must buy man3, of : Hubbard's books, and often attend special lectures or Congresses, which usually run tapes of Hubbard, or speeches by top Scientologists. In addition, a Scientolo-- gist may take extra auditing (at about $25 a session) or adidtional courses that are outside of the prescribed lev- els of treatment or trig. For example a number of The High Cost of Scientology 153 the Orgs used to offer a special "Money Processing Course" which was supposed to increase the Scientolo~st's "money making potential." (This course consisted of having the person think of a number of ways in which he could waste money, probably under the principle that one must find what a preclear can do and then "better that ability.") If a preclear complained that he couldn't afford the Scientolog7 rates, he was told to take this course for only S35 to help him learn how to earn more.* The "Money Making Potential" course may have helped many Scientologists but one wonders how. One man who took it said it was so worthwhile, he "made $5,000" a few days after completing it. When he was pressured to tell how he had done this, he finally admitted that after the come was completed he had gone to a bank and taken the money out on loan. ff a Scientologist decides he doesn't want to spend extra money on additional auditing or courses, he may not have a choice in the matter. Scientolo~sts progress at their own speed and are not permitted to continue until the Student Examiner is satisfied that he's mastered * At one of the Scientology lectures I artended, someone asked "If the goal of Scientology is to help the world, why is it so expensive that very few people in the world can afford to be helped by it?" The person was told that "nothing is expensive when your happiness is at stake," which, of course, did not answer the question. Usually, the Scientologists will refer to their free "Personal Efficiency Course" as an example of their altruism and proof that they provide Scientology for free for those who can't afford it. They admitted in theix United States tax case that the purpose of this course or lecture, however, was to get people to take paying courses. This becomes painfully apparent in Hubbard's HCO Bulletin of September 29, 1959. "NEVER let anyone simply walk out. Convince him he's loony ff he doesn't gain on it because thaes the truth . . . get the people in fast . . . and boot them through to their HAS [Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist course] . . . And never let a student leave or quit... If he walks in that door for a free PE, that's it. He doesn't get out except into an individual auditor's hand in the real tough cases, until he's an HAS." This PE "course," by the way, is the first night lecture, film of Hubbard and personality test. 154 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY the pre~ious lessons. Thus a Scientolo~st can be made to take and pay j~or more hours than he originally signed up for at the discretion of the leaders. These extra courses are sometimes given as punishment. and it was s~d in ParLiament that a Scientoio~st could b~ n',r~de to take additional courses ff he tried to leave ScicntoieZy or ff he questioned the accepted doctrines of the group. A kientologist may also discover that Scientolo~' is costing him more money than his original c~culations ~ ~, indicated because the courses themselves may change. Hubbard often redefines the levels, and while the motivation is probably sincere, some on the way to a certain ;.i level have discovered that they've had to sign up for a !'~! whole new series of courses in order to reach their goal. ;:i!addition, a~er areachedlevel, '!* sa3' clear, the HCO (Hubbard Communications Office) Board of Review can call for a retest at its own discre- tion after a lapse of time. Whether the person who fails has to take any courses again, or even new ones, is not known. It's not surprising that a really dedicated Scientolo- ~st can easily spend S15,000 in this "world of the total- ly free," and one wealthy Floridfan, who had com- plained of "nervousness" but was told he was in good health at the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, spent S28.000 in Scientolo~'. But most people who join it don't have that kind of money to spend. Many pay for their courses by lea~ing their jobs and going to work for Scientology in exchange for trig units--often for a small salary besides (S40 a week for about 40 hours of work in New York). Those who didn't wish to break completely from their outside contacts, were able to get credit at one time, which the Church extended at sLx ~ercent interest with a twenty-five percent surcharge re- turned ff the note was paid on time. One person who wrote the Church and said he couldn't pay his bill, was written back not to feel that way because "there's noth- ing a thetan can't do." But they haven't always been that kind to debtors. Unpaid notes have been turned The High Cost oJ ScicntoIogy 155 over to collection agencies, legal a&on has been threatened, and debtors and their family have been harassed and intimidated, sometimes quite cruelly as shown hi the letter below. This letter was received by a man in the mid-west whose son took $55u worth of courses but only paid for $200 of them. The father was then b~ed for the balance in a letter sa.~ing he had "a~eed" to pay the other S350. The father wrote back sa.~ing he hadn't "a~eed" to any such thing, and reported the Scientolo~sts. On October 13, he received the follox~ing threats and accusations from a Scientolo~ Reverend. Rather than let my law3'ers have all the fun, I will write to you this once and straighten you out. I have a Feat urge to beggar you to your last pair of socks, but I will curb the desire a little longer. If you had the x~t of a demented swineherd you would have read those pieces of literature I so graciously had sent to you... do not judge people by yourseft. Not everyone is a mass murderer like i, ourselL Yes, I know quite a bit about you and your various projects during the war. And how do you sleep at night? I hope tis ill... I am expert at harassment, try me and find out. You are not strong enough. You are not smart enough. You haven't the funds to go through long len~o'finy court battles. We have. Bigger men than you have done their best to stop us. They failed. So x~ill you because you are a blatant moron in comparison. We joust only with our peers, others--like you--we will simply gobble up . . . one more word out of you and I'll have you investigated. I might anyway. I have never seen one person yet that resisted Scientology who didn't have a great deal to hide. And you evidently won't look at free books sent to you, so you must, perforce have a great deal to conceal. The letter continued ~th more accusations of guilt on the part of the father, along x~th praise of Scientology and concluded on this ominous note. ~ ,~ ?, 156 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY ~!2;'!':~!~!: ff you want to start a Donnybrook, Buddy, wail ~~1 , ! away; to use the argot of the streets I'll just start my people to work on you and then before long ~, . you will be broke, and out of a job and broken in '!:!'~" health. Then I can have my nasty little chuc~e :' about you and get back to work... ~_'ou won't . take long to finish off. I would estimate three ~ ! ~:,j:~/L::!! weeks. Remember: I am not a meal)' mouthed ~.,:~::!ii psalm [sic] canthag preacher. I am a minister of ..~, i the Church of ScientoloD'! I am able to heal the sick and I do. But I have other abilities which in- clude a knowledge of men's minds that I ~411 use to crush you to your knees. You or any other wretch that stands in our way. Cause the list is long, but their careers are very short of those that have jousted with us. The letter, written on the Church of ScientoloD' letter- head, was signed "with the utmost sincerity possible" by the Reverend Andrew Bagley, Organizational Secretary. There was a short P.S. appended: "Don't reply to this letter. If I want to get in touch with you, I'll be able to find you. Anywhere." P.S. The father paid the bill. P.P.S. His son took approximately $4,500 worth more courses in Seientolo~,, pa34ng for them himserf the next time from a $5,000 inheritance. Seientologists get people to pay substantial fees by promising to refund their money if they are dissatisfied with Scientology--and they are quick to point out that no psychotherapist returns mone3' if therapy proves un- i successful (although they are just as quick to point out [[,!~i7!~~ ~that they are not a form of therapy). In fact, the Scien- ,! tolo~sts haven't always returned the money either, and have sometimes set up certain conditions that have made it difficult for people to collect. The person must ~ !~ ~ usually ask for his money within thirty (sometimes ~ :, ninety) days after the course is completed. Some people " have also been made to take the security test before li !: they can get a refund. Others have signed a contract that obligates them to obey their Ethics Officer "in ad- The High Cost of Scientology 157 vice ~iven me to facilitate my case profess and that any failure to do so renders this contract null and void wkhout rebate." (The Ethics Officer cam of course, tell them not to ask for their money back, because that would be laindoting their pro~ess, and tell them to facilitate it by signing up for more courses instead.) In one case, an Australian woman si~ed up for three hundred hours of auditing, took 175, and then asked for her money back. The reeister wrote her back that "the only way out is the way~throu~p-ja," in other words, that she would have to take all 300 hours before she could leave Scientology and ask for her money back. This could cost her another $600 which she didn't have, so she wrote them back again. Ag-ain they wrote her "I re'peat, the only way out is the way through." The following is a portion of her extremely pathetic reply, listing the emotional and financial difficulties that she felt Scientolo~' was responsible for. .. my situation has in every way worsened under the influence of Scientolo~ I have to strug~e to even stay awake, and as a consequence, I fear to lose my job and the little security that gives me. It takes a friS..htful effort not to go to sleep... I am slow in my work and make mistakes.. I am always exhausted and sometimes can hardly walk along. This is the result I have obtained from Spending all my money on something that is claimed to increase alertness and intelligence and generally benefit people... Under these circumstances it is no help to be told "the way out is the way through." I have no money left for further auditing and no chance of saving any since I barely make ends meet. When nothing happened, she ~TOte directly to Hubbard, as do many Seientologists, putting letters in special boxes in the Orgs that say "You can always communicate with Ron." At the commencement I had a iob I liked, which paid me fairly well, and enough money put away ~ 158 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGy tO feel reasonably secure. Now I have a job I don't care for, which does not pay so well, my money is largely gone, and instead of being reasonably content I feel that nothing is worth doing. ha~tng periods of absolute exhaustion. and look fo~nvard to the remaining years of nlv life with complete hopelessness, as just a dreary- round of work, ! ~ work, work at something I dofi't care for to earn enough to e.'ds~ to go on working. Hubbard referred this letter to the Melbourne Org, where it was diagnosed as a case of "Missed W/H." She was persuaded to undergo twenty-five hours of free proc- essing for her "Missed ~dthholds." Two years later she was still a Scientologist--and pay'rag for it. CttAPTER T~,VENTY THE TRUTH ABOL'T L. RON HL'BBARD For heavcn's sake, tell them I'm not God. --L. Ron Hubbard, quoted by Eric Barnes, Public Relations Chief of New York Church of Scientology Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, born in 1911 in Titden, Nebraska, is a man of many talents and accomplishments, although not quite as many as he claims. In a number of bio~aphies and autobio~aphies, both types of which were said to have been written by him, he claims to have been descended from Count de Loup, to be part French and Scotch and to have part of his family come from Little Clacton, Essex. He claims to have been a blood brother of the Pikuni Indians, "fast friends" with Calvin Coolidge Jr., and to be the real life model for the book, play, and movie, Mister Roberrs. He also claims to have Faduated in mathematics and en~neering from Columbian University (a past of George Washington UniversiD'), sometimes claims to have graduated in civil en~neering from George Washin~on University, to have attended Princeton University (sometimes the Princeton School of Government) and to have gotten a Ph.D. from Sequoia University. He was a prolific writer, a singer, an explorer (and claims to have been a member of the Explorers Club since 1936), a seaman, a 159 [i i 160 TIlE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY 21 ~' Lieutenant in the nax3', who was severely injured in the war. Man3' of these things are true; for example, his family does come from Little Clacton, Essex, he was a ?i,. writer, he was an explorer (and a member of the Ex- plorers Club, but since 1940. not 1936 as he claimed). he was severely injured in the war (and in fact was in a lifeboat for many days, badly injuring his body and his i ~!'. eyes in the hot Pacific sun). But there are a number of : sr'_.~:~I1 unimportant things in his Brief Biography of L. R<,~ Hr~bbard (which his son claims his father really ~ ! wrote) that were exposed by the Daily Mail in England as false. Because of these errors, it tends to cast suspi- cion, perhaps unjustly, on the rest. Actually, most of the "errors" in that biography and others, with the excep- tion of his academic background, were simply sins by omission. Although Hubbard admits he ~TOte Screen- ing! plays and westerns, it was in science fiction that he ~: .. made his mark, a fact he conveniently omitted in his Brief Biography and frequently underplayed elsewhere. 'i This is important because a science fiction background !-i' ~ is not considered good preparation for the under- . ; standing of true scientific phenomena and also because i~ Hubbard wrote so nruch science fiction at one time that it would seem almost impossible that he could have i!i[~ carried on the careful research he claimed he did to :ii formulate Dianetics upon which Scientolog~/is based. Nonetheless, Hubbard says Dianetics was based on his ~' e.'chaustive research with 270 subjects, and this research formed the basis of his engram and other theories. A re- cent article in Freedom stated that Hubbard spent thirD'- five },ears researching the mind before Dianetics came ';~ out. If this is true, it means that he started researching :2 ,.~ at the age of three. Generally, Hubbard is content to "'~ have people believe he spent twelve years researching :i! Dianetics before coming out with his basic book, Diane- tics: The Modern Science oJ Mental Health. He says .!' that the research began with his 1938 book, EXcalibur !; which appears to have been the manuscript he claims ;' was stolen by the Russians. During these twelve years, The Truth About L. Ron Hubbard 161 especially in the last three or four before Dianetics came out, he wrote at least seventy-eight science fiction stories alone (under his name, or the pseudonyms of Rene Lafayette and Kurt Van Strachen) not to mention writinn in other fields. With all this wd~ing. it's hard to believ[- he had the time to research those 270 subjects properly (to research them properly would require 540 people; a control Foup that has not been ~ven the Dianetic treatment should have been included in the sample). With the exception of his one article on Dianetics published in a science fiction magazine, a cursory examination of Hubbard's other stories show no indication that his imagination was being applied to the science rather than the fiction. Crhe one exception is a story written in 1938 called "Her Maiesrb.-'s Aberration" but it appears that only the title prosaged an}thing that was to come later.) Another thing that Hubbard was doing at the timeL-also apparently not conducive to Dianetics research, and also an item he failed to mention in his "autobiographies"~was that he was possibly practicing black marc. Alexander Mitchell, who writes for the Sunday Times in Endand, claimed that Hubbard was once practicing witchcraft with John Parsons, who joined the American branch of the cult of Aleister Crowley, the reknowned sorcerer and mystic. Parsons got Hubbard to act as a hio~_.h priest during a number of rituals, during which time Parsons had sexual relations ~bth his girl friend, Betty, who was also allegedly ha~ing relations with Hubbard. Hubbard seemed unconcerned about the competition, though, since Mitchell wrote that in the "climax" of the ritual, he allegedly "worked" his two subjects into a sexual frenLO'." In addition to these sexual unions, there seems to have been some pooling of finances on a business partnership. Parsons was believed to have invested $17,000, Hubbard about S10,000, and Parson's girl friend Betty nothing. But it was said that Hubbard used about $10,000 of this to buy a yacht, while his friend Parsons ;'; ' 162 THE SCANDAL OF SClENTOLOGY ~' ,ser~,e. And not necessarily maintaining a skeptical attitude, a critical attitude, or an open mind. But certainly maintaining sufficient personal Integrity and sufficient personal belief and confidence in self and courage that we observe what we observe and wei~ what we have observed. Still his followers believe that every word he writes is The Truth. In fact, a group of Hubbard's admirers wrote a book comparing his statements ~4th the Bible (along with Saint Thomas Aquinas) where they believed the meanin~ were parallel. It's hard to believe that ScientoloD' or Dianetics has actually ever helped anybody. Yet the Scientologists have testimonial books in their lobby filled with "success stories" of people who have been helped by Scientology, and they even have a Dkector of Success at the Orgs who elicits these testimonials. The testimonials de- ;~ ': 176 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY l: livered do not tell of long range effects, however. Even ff these testimonials are not of very much value, the fact ':i i remains that a great number of people believe that they have been helped by Sciento!o~, and Dianetics, and probably many of them hax,e been helped. Below are two testimonials, and while there were literally hundreds to choose from, these two were very complete, listing a large number of ailments that had been cured and a variety of ways that Dianetics had helped ~ i: .i them. ~!1 The first letter comes from a 35-year--old woman who had an unbelievable host of s)maptoms: she used to cry all the time, couldn't see very weB, was very nervous, had trouble gaining weight, was inhibited, dependent, afraid of crowds, had pains on her side, the measles she '. had at eleven seemed to have "settled in her left eye," !i ~ ',!-:! was constantly talking, and had two operations during t the time she was in Dianetics. She kept a diary over a ~,~ period of a few months to show how processing had not only helped her relieve a large number of these s~p- 4' toms, but enabled her breasts and feet to grow and her : hair to curl: .My hair... in the last three weeks it curls more than ever I can't explain it but my feet seem to . be growing! Of course I am developing more all over. I have had rather large pores around my nose for several )'ears. In the last week I noticed that my skin has smoothed out and is more like when I was twenty... about two months ago I noticed my feet seemed to be growing . . . before ' ii;} starting on these sessions my breasts were unusual- ly small. In fact, I wore a size 32A brassiere... I am now wearing a size 34C and from all indica- tions will wear still larger. My breasts never really i developed as they should, but now, thanks to Dianetics, I am beginning to be as nature intended. ,. Although no one in the center apparently recognized it, including Hubbard who presented this case, any doc- tcr or psychiatrist would have immediately questioned Does ScientologY Work? 177 ~,hether she was being helped or whether a basic schizophrenic condition was being exacerbated- As she continued to be processed (and the above ent-D.' represents diar)' jotfin~ from several months) she thought she was being helped, but perhaps she was actually acquiring or agFavating schizophrenic symptoms. It is a fakty common delusion among a certain ~,pe of schizophrenic that parts of the body are growing and changing. The next letter is a testimonial to a Dianetics Center: During the past week through Dianetics processing I have been relie';ed of pains in the stomach due to ulcers; have regained hearing in my ri~t ear in which I have been deaf for three and a half years; have regained the ability to breathe throu~ my nostrils which I had not been able to do for the past six or seven years; have been relieved of severe constipation which has been continuous for at least six years and now my stools are entirely normal; the burning sensation of my eyes of ei~t or nine years duration caused by electrical flashes has been relieved, and I am no longer bothered by headaches after using my eyes for reading. I had not been able to do any extensive reading at ni~c,_.ht for the past seven or eight years without getting headaches and for several years I have had cramps in my legs and feet at ni~t until the past week.. Many people would agree, however, that this letter comes from an extremely neurotic woman, whose ailments were probably psychosomatic. They couldn't have been cured in a week without medicalion if they had really had a physiological basis. For her, Dianetics seems to have acted as a form of faith healing, and like any form of faith healing, Dianefics and Scientolo~' can be effective--however they may be effective only on those who are so suggestible that they might have been helped by anything so long as they believed in it and stayed with it. But what happens when a Scientolo~st loses faith and stops believing? Most Scientologists never find out because they never lose faith and leave. ~, ~,I, THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGy Instead of preparing them to cope with the real world, as therapy would, Scientology prepares them to cope with the world of Scientology. There are always new courses for them to take. When they get tired of being audited the5' can always audit others. When the3' get tired of the Org they can join the Sea Org. And when the5' get tired of all that, they can get a franchise---excuse me, start a mission--and go into the Scientolo~ business themselves. Thus, they may be helped, but only at a tremendous cost in time and money. For some the cost is even higher. In one case, Robert Kaufman, who wrote a fascinating book called How I Joined Scientology and Became Superhuman, was in a New York Scientology. franchise at first, but then went to Saint Hill to take the advanced courses that are offered there. Not long after his arrival there, he was upset to see two Scientologists who were in an advanced state of severe emotional disturbance under twentyfour-hour watctL He was told that one had just gone clear and that the other was in the midst of the course. In addition, he was appalled by what he describes as "the police-state type atmosphere of the place and constant punishments, like the dirty-Fay armbands the3' forced people to wear for the most trivial mistake." He writes that he "was in a state of walking hypnotism. Part of me was repelled by what I saw, and the other part of me desperately wanted to go on to catch the Golden Fleece and go 'clear.'" He went clear after he left Saint Hill and went to Edinburgh, but he discovered that the symptoms that had started at Saint Hill were getting worse. He still couldn't sleep at night, and when he would finally collapse from exhaustion, he would. wake up in the morning with an acute attack of an:fleD'. Fearing that his symptoms x~ould get worse ff he stopped, he continued on with the next three secret upper levels, whose description is so strange as to be almost unbelievable. Kaufman claims that these strange exercises caused him to "undergo extreme disorientation and splitting of personality" plus a new symptom: Does Scict~to!oD' tVork? 179 an obsession to commit suicide. He says that all during this time "I felt rotten, but eve~' time I reached another level, eve~'one would smile, pat me on the back, hand n~e my ce::ificates ~di?lomasl'and take my money for the next course." By LEe end of this time, plus a brief stint back in America. he had spent about SB.000 in Scientolo~' and the only thing that kept him from suicide was his fear that i~ he did so it would "invalidate Scientolo~'" and his name would be put on the bulletin board. (Kaufman was the man mentioned earlier who was so upset over the notices posted on the bulletin board about the epileptic who died.) But in the end he no longer cared, and in order to save his own life, he voluntarily committed himserf to a mental institution. Today he is out of the hospital and has no desire ever to return to ScientoloD.'- Another even worse case involves a Falls Church, Vir~nia, couple and their two children: one was retarded and the other. while speaking early in his life, later stopped talking.' The couple went to Sdentolo~ for help with the second child, and Hubbard, his ~ife, and several others in the Washingon Church at that time all promised to increase the child's I.Q., "improve on nature whatever happened to be the defect," and cause him to speak x~4thin a specific number o[ hours. At the end of the twelve-week session, when the child still couldn't speak, the distraught parents were told that 'the Scientolo~sts were at a near breakthrou~ and that they should continue ~4th the processing and take more courses than they had ori~oinally agreed upon. The couple could ill afford to lose this money, since they raised it by cashing in life insurance bonds and a small inheritance. Althoug~ it eventually cost them over S3,000 "as a contribution to spiritual guidance," the child was never able to speak. The Australian Report presented something worse, as they put it, a woman "processed into insaniD'." They had set up a special two-way mirror to witness Scientology techniques so that they could judge the merits of lg0 THE SCANDAL OF SClENTOLOGY their auditing. Such a situation would of course be a litfie different than a regular auditing session, since the person was aware that he was being obser~'ed, and the sessions were shorter than the usual. !'i!!'i hours of Scientolo~' processing and had si~ed up for a total of 300. At the beginning of the session she said her goals for the session were that she would get "bins" and feel more positive about thin~, that she would feel calmer, and she could handle situations at home. At the conclusion of the session, when her goals were read out to her, she claimed she had made "gains" in all of them. Nine days later she entered a mental hospital. A psychiatrist who saw the transcript of the demonstration session told the board that her behavior obviously indicated she was in a state of mania--not ecstasy--and that this would have been apparent to a psychiatrist. A slightly similar case occurred in England. In March, 1967, Mr. Peter Hordern got up in Parliament to describe the case of one of his constituents, Karen Henslow, a thirty-year-old tannic-depressive who had been institutionalized three times. Scientolo~sts were aware of her backgound. Her contact with Scientolo~ started when she met at a dance an Australian, Murray i :, ii Youdell, who was t'aking the highest auditing grade at Saint Hill. He began to audit Miss Henslow, althou~ she told him of her illness, and in January she was interviewed at Saint Hill. Karen told her mother that she had mentioned her illness to them, sa:~ing "I told her all about my illness and I cried. She [probably the Redstrar] was sweet and understanding." Later, in May, she ~! was offered a job as a "Progress and Filing Clerk" for -. about $18 a week, of which she had to relinquish about $10 for bed and breakfast. After two weeks in Scientology she disconnected from her mother and wrote saying, "... I do not want , :~i' to see you or hear from you again. From now on you ~" don't exist in my life.. ," The same day the mother re- ceived a second letter, with no date, apologizing for the Does ScientoloD' Work? 1gl first letter and sa.~4ng she wanted to "nullify it as a communication," and that it was mailed ~4thout her permission. "You are the last person I want to disconnect from" she wrote. Later, among Karen's possessions were four more letters labeling ~ends and relatives suppressive. On July 27, two months after she began Seientolog3', Karen arrived at her mother's house dressed in only a nightgown and raincoat and shoes and "in a completely deranged condition," according to her mother. With her ~,as Mr. Youdell, along with another Scientolo~st- Mrs Henslow said the other Scientologist had processed' Karen for three hours the previous night to try to get her better. It apparently didn't work. Later that night~ Karen went screaming from her house and was subsequently put in a mental institution. The consulting psychiatrist in charge of her case allegedly said that Scientology had "probably precipitated" her collapse. Karen felt she had benefited from ScientologY and stated that she wanted to return to it when she left the hospital. During a subsequent interview on the matter, Mr. Youdell, who had gotten Karen into Scientolo~' allegedly "answered questions . with an unblinking stare and a collea~e said Mr. Youdell was 'in cycle' and not to be interrupted," and referred inquiries to Mr. Reg. Sharpe, Mr- Hubbard's personal assistant. Mr. Sharpe, a man in his sixties who wears the badge ot: a "clear" and is said to work [or Hubbard for no pay, sald "We tried to help this girl. We did not know she had a mental history. We do not take on for processing anyone who has got a mental history." That such a statement is not true seems obvious not only from this case (althou~ the Sci~ntologists claim that the>' did not know about her illness but that only Murray youdell did), but also from another letter reported by the Daily Mail in England. This letter was allegedly written by ~'o Scientologists to tell the "success story" of a girl who went to Saint Hill: "At that time Hilary was completely broken down in mind and body; ha~ing spent ' ~! .L: 182 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY going 'treatment.'" ~5~;~ i: In reading Hubbard's work one comes across refer- ences to "psychotic" people ~at were helped, and in his PABS (Preclear Auditor's Book) ~3 Hubbard even told what pr~Mure to use in "Processing psychotics vs. neu- rotics." That Scientolog~B do g~ionaHy take in men- tally disNbed people w~ ~so revealM ~ court dur~g one of ~e gefican m c~es. ~ey ad~tted that ~ey did take h ment~ c~es because a re~s~ar would feel so~ for someone with a problem ~d want to help em. Attorney ~chael I. Sande~ had asked: Q: Were exceptions [i.e.; ~ople taken ~ who were disturbed] made in those cases where the pre- cle~ had available Bnds? A: There would usually be, because the Org need- M funds ra~er ba&y. In addition to worgg wi~ mentally disturbed pe~ ple or at le~t p~ple who have been ~stimtionaDzed at one time, there is also some evidence that they have worked with mentaBy deficient people. ~ Ability maga- ~ne Hubbard once described the case of a person with an I.Q. of seventy-~ree--which is officially classified as a "moron"--which he raised to eighty-eigt--which, by ~e way, is still classffied as a moron. Despite these c~es and others, fientolo~ claims ~at ~ o~ w~ ever hged by iientolo~ or Dian~ fi~. ~ey may be fi~t when ~ey say that Dianetics ~d kientolog did not c~e ~ese p~ple's d~culties. But lett~g an au~tor, M~out proper medical or psy- cholo~cM tragg, work with ~ople who may have had mental sd physic~ &smrbances would seem to be a dangerous practiceyen ff they claim to be treating only the spkit. And hav~g an auditor try to help people by ta~ng them back to ~e womb and ~ek former lives might not be as beneficial as having them talk out their real problems in thek re~ Ne. There are fourteen ~ s~ges of ~aw~g before a chad can actually walk; the ~i ~d, too, develops ~ a somewhat ~er~c~cal m~er ?~ Does ScientoIogy Work? 183 and each of these steps must be stabilized somewhat before the person can safely move from one to another. Scientolo~sts, encouraged by auditors whose qualifications are questionable, may move on to the next step before they are ready to handle it. And like walking before the3' can crawl--they may fall flat on thek psychical faces. CONCLUSION In this book, I have tried to explain what Scientologists believe, what they do, how Scientology started and is expanding, and what happens to a person once he joins Scientology. One question I have not yet answered is the one that is most frequently asked of me---"Why do people join ScientologyT' For one thing, they haven't read this book---or anything else that really tells them about the group. Most of the people who attend the introductory lecture or visit the Org out of curiosi~' know nothing about: the people who joined and found that their emotional difficulties were being ag~avated instead of alleviated; the people who spent thousands of dollars on Scientolo~' in one year; and the people who were harassed after they left. The kientologists have done ever}thing possible to keep these stories private. Not only have they sued and harassed those who have spoken out publicly against the group, but they have also tried to discredit them by sometimes "revealing" their supposed "crimes" in lurid and ludicrous detail. While the people who join Scientology usually have not had a chance to hear the Scientology critics, they also haven't heard the Scientologists themselves either. They do not really know what Scientology has to offer or what they are getting into. Those who join the group spend quite a bit of time in it before they find out what the Scientolo~sts really believe, about the Scientology auditing process, or even that there is a Scientology au- 185 ,~i 186 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY diting process. That's because Scientolo~sts are very evasive about their activities, usually answering (or *, Sciento!o~sts do ~4th such statemenu as "Ws beautiful." "it'll make you free," and '~'ou'11 have to try it for yourself." In fact, people have to try it for themselves for quite some time before they discover how deeply involved both financially and emotionally they have become. Sometimes, by that time, they are too deeply involved to leave. For the deeper a person goes into Scientology, the deeper he may have to go into Scientolo~. The more courses he takes, the more time he spends with Scientologists. The more time he spends with his new friends, the less time he spends with his old friends. If he leaves his job and goes to work for Scientolo~, as many do, he ~411 soon be li~4ng and working only for Scientology, spending time only with Scientolo-gists, and, as many people who have met them have discovered to their dismay, talking only about Scientology. ~dBut while this may explain why they stay there, it oes not explain their initial attraction to the group. I ~ think one thing that attracts people to the group is its ': appearance. It appears to be religious (ministers, clerical robes, etc.) It appears to be scienfflic C'Scientolog}'"). It appears to be involved with technoloD' (the Emeter), It appears to have a philosophical body of knowledge (Hubbard's writing). Another thing that attracts them is the appearance of some of the people themself. Although by now it may seem that Scientolo-gists have crazy stares, talk gobbledy-gook language, and act as if they're from outer space, the usual initial impression that most people acquire when they walk into an Org is that of people who are young, very attractive, and often, intelligent. Furthermore, many of these young people are unattached, so that sin~e or lonely people are attracted to Scientology's social life. Some people join Scientology because they have already met their mate---a person who was or became a Scientologist. Some o the most ardent Scientologists admitted Conclusion 187 that they initially joined or became interested in the ~oup because their spouses or loved ones were Scientologists and the only way they could continue to see that person, or have something in common with them, was by joining the group themselves. In addition to those who join because they are seeking a mistress or a mate (a person), many people ioin because they are seeking a group to which they can really belong and be a part. Scientology is really just one big family. Hubbard, of course, is the father, and his ~4fe plays the role of the mother. Scientolo~sts are children who, if they're good, ~ill be taken care of; if they're bad, and protest or question anything, father says they x~ill be expelled from the family unit. Everything in their life is planned for them. There are certain courses for them to take and certain goals they must achieve in each course. If they disobey, or balk at any level, the punishments are rigidly set forth. Fortunately for the Scientolo~fists, Hubbard treats his children somewhat kindly--so long as they don't ever grow up and try to leave his home. Like any family group, or in fact any group, ScientoloD' fulfills some of the personal needs of its members. Someone with a strong desire to be respected by others can easily become a Scientology minister and be treated with the reverence generally accorded to men of the cloth. Someone with feelings of intellectual inferiority believes he can have his I.Q. raised by Scientology, and can, in fact, get a (Scientolog3') B.A. or a (Scientology) Doctorate degree. Someone who feels lonely has a place to go to and Mends to see once he joins Sden- tology--Scientology brings meaning into his life where once there was only emptiness. The man I described in the first chapter who said that before he discovered Scientology he used to lie in bed and stare at the ceilings may not have been that different from some of the others who joined. But now that man has a place to go and something to do. People understand what he's saying because he's speaking their language. People look him 18 8 THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOG~/ strai~t in the eye when he talks to them People lik~ him now because he has the same goals. More important-now he has some goals. He is working hard to bring everyone into ScientoloD so that to_~ether they can all save this world. It would be a laudabl~ goal, t~,. except for one thing: no one is allowed to disagree win or criticize the manner in which the Scientologists think they're going to save the world. When all is said and done, what Scientology has to offer is merely their treatment or processing. They believe that it is our only road to salvation. The Scientologists like to say that there can't be two sides to the truth. Since they believe that they have found the truth, those who disagree with them are wrong. Perhaps. Sometimes when I am most skeptical about the efficacy of their methods, I think back to what one Scientologist said (using typically inflated figures) about their membership: "Fifteen million people can't be wrong." But history has often proven othem'ise. Many of the theories and teachings of scientology are so [anciful that ttte reaction oI tlhe normal individual on hearing them is generally one o[ amusement and incredulity... the impression may exist . . . that scientology is just harmless nonsense and its followers merely queer people, that its theories are Ioolish but ~unny and that not much harm is being done by allowing silly people to have their silly beIieffs and carry on their silly practices. Such an attitude is welcomed by the scientologists, for it serves to obscure the real nature of scientoIogy. ~from the Australian Report Incredulity of ottr data and ralidity. This is our finest asset and gives us more protection than any other single asset. 1[ certain parties thought we were real we would have infinitely more trouble... without a public incredulity we never would have gotten as far as we have. And now it's too late tO be stopped. The protection was accidental but it serves us very well indeed. Remember that next time the ignorant sco~. ~L. Ron Hubbard 189 ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. WARNING CONCERNING COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS: The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photo copies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under certain conditions specified by law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research." 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