Scientology is the most written about, investigated, and often-raided cult in the world today. Over the years, hundreds of horrifying articles have appeared worldwide in respected newspapers and magazines. What you are about to read goes far beyond shock, beyond the Jonestown potential, beyond anything ever revealed about the secret cult of Scientology.
This cult has been raided by both the F.B.I. and the F.D.A. At this time (1980) 11 of the cult's highest officials are in U.S. jails on criminal charges, including the founder's wife. Yet despite all the attention and the information that has come out in court cases, barely the tip of the iceberg has been exposed. There has been little real understanding of the whole picture of what this mysterious cult is really doing and is really up to.
There is good reason for "seeing the nail but missing it with the hammer." The cult bathes itself in mystery, secrecy, codes, special nomenclatures, security clearances, and polygraph type ("E-Meter") loyalty tests. These shrouds of secrecy hamper understanding and assembling the few pieces of data investigators have had. My legal case was the first to reach the courts from someone who had been all the way through the cult's upper level programming. Normally this programming makes a group member fearfully and unquestioningly loyal to the cult, unable to expose the whole truth and the whole picture of what the cult is really doing. No correctly programmed cult member would dare expose a truth more suited to a horror science fiction story than a modern day religious organization.
I am a fugitive from the cult now, after being a programmed true believer for 11 years. I have to keep traveling and operate under fictitious identities to avoid the cult's heavy and extensive search for me. I am a most dangerous security leak to the cult because I have firsthand knowledge of their criminal activity and am willing to tell all, despite their 'level 2' programming.
I have written this affidavit in case I am caught by the cult or harmed before I have had the chance to tell what lies beneath the codes, the secrets, and the protective illusions the cult creates.
I have instructed my lawyer to file this document in its entirety on a specific date so it becomes a matter of public record for my suit against the cult. And I am writing this affidavit for my friends and family so they can understand why I was so distant from them while I was a loyal cult member, and for my friends and other good people who (as I was) are still in and controlled by the cult. Another reason is for my country. I am grateful now to be able to do something that can help many people and possibly even help to protect our national security. Finally, I am writing this as an expression of the severe mental and physical pain, anguish, and suffering I have been subjected to by the cult -- suffering I could wish on no human being, even the worst of my enemies.
THIS AFFIDAVIT CONTAINS:
In certain of my comments, some of the emotional scars left by
the cult show through. Please try to ignore these emotions and
just look at the facts as they bear out with documentation. I
have tried to make this report as complete as possible, with data
that may benefit my lawyer and anyone else who must deal with
this group. I wrote it as though I might never be able to write
another, in consideration of the fanatical reaction inside the
cult when they find their most sensitive information on public
record.
Larry D. Wollersheim February 4, 1980
revised for a general audience April-May 1993
My Beginnings in Scientology
Page (1) Missing
On course, I was enthusiastically sold all the marvelous things the cult offered at different levels.
"OT-8," the top level of Scientology, was shown to me on a chart saying that it gives one the power of "subjective and objective cause over matter, energy, space and time." It was explained to me that this means a person can move objects without mechanical means, see through walls, travel without your body, travel in or change time both subjectively and objectively. So objectively that other people could see it and know it to be true.
I was told that a "clear" doesn't get colds and has no voices in his head. Everything is quiet in his head. My course supervisor had a withered leg but he assured me that Scientology was making it grow back. It still looked withered to me but I assumed it had been more withered before. I really liked the idea of traveling and being able to do things without my body. This impressed me the most. I was told, "Imagine having a free United Airlines ticket to anywhere in the universe -- that's what it's like to be OT."
I was told that I could train and become an "auditor" and in a matter of weeks have a profession where I could earn a living and do more to help people than any counselor, psychiatrist or psychologist. Later in my cult experience I was shown a policy, HCOB 16 July 1970, which boasts, "Any HAS knows more and can do more about the mind than any psychiatrist."
On my first course, the HAS ("Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist") course, we did something they call "TR's" (Training Routines). I was shocked at first, coming from a private all-boys Catholic high school, by "bullbaiting." In bullbaiting you try to make a person show some type of reaction by any verbal or non-violent physical means. I was bullbaited by several individuals. On one occasion, a girl rubbed her hand up and down the inside of my leg and talked about performing oral sex and various other sex acts, in the most explicit language. Every time I laughed or reacted she would "flunk" me. I remember once she flunked me for getting an erection. Once the male supervisor took my hand and moved it above my groin, imitating masturbation, while describing various "styles" of masturbation like "the Italian fist fucker" style. I was assured that all this was necessary to help me communicate with people.
As I look back at it now, I think I was pretty typical of people drawn to the cult at that time. The cult sold a far-out sort of spiritualism and romanticism -- an underdog trying to save a world gone crazy. At 19, during the Vietnam era, I could agree that the world was crazy.
I came from a naive, highly disciplined background and now, on my own for a school vacation, wanted to experience new things. I was looking for new solutions to the teenage pressures of growing into the "real" world. I fervently desired my idealist dreams of world betterment and individual improvement -- so much that I was willing to forgo life's uncertainty for the "certain" dreams I was promised through the cult.
Inspired and motivated by the cult's wild claims, and in hope of a new career where I could help others and make a good living, I decided to end my vacation and go wherever I could most quickly earn money for Scientology training. I decided on Alaska, but was turned away because I didn't have enough cash to drive the long Alaska-Canada highway -- or to live while I looked for a job. I drove back to Wisconsin and started a candle manufacturing business to earn the large sums of money I needed.
In Milwaukee I met a high level cult member, Maurry Lereud, and gave him several thousand dollars for courses, books, and auditing. By the time I received my first auditing I had been totally indoctrinated on what I should say, do, feel, and experience. I had taken courses and had seen and heard others talk about their results (called "wins" or "gains"). I hoped and believed so hard that Scientology was the only way out of my problems and the world's problems, that I really believed I was experiencing "wins" and I wrote "success stories" saying what they were.
With a positive attitude like that, any placebo would have made me feel better and convinced me that I had had gains. Thus "it" happened in my first level of auditing from Maurry Lereud.
I see now that the subjective gains I wrote about in glowing testimonials were greatly affected by the placebo effect of my own hopes and strong-as-iron belief in cult doctrine. Any temporary relief I experienced from auditing is understandable from my induced subjective euphoria. The "gains" I believed I experienced did not stand the tests of time or objectivity. I am sad that my testimonials (oral, written, and taped while I was in a mentally dominated state) were used to convince tens of thousands of others that Hubbard's technology is effective.
By the time I realized what was going on in the cult I had directly and indirectly influenced over 20,000 cult members, probably more, and helped create the greatest cash boom the cult ever experienced.
In my days as a cult salesman I saw many people get auditing to grow hair on a bald spot, to lose weight, to get rid of pains and illnesses -- including cancer and heart trouble. I saw them sold more and more auditing and be told they needed yet more -- that the next new cure-all would handle their problems. I have seen women pay tens of thousands of dollars in hopes of losing weight and remain as fat as ever, still hoping and being led by the cult's sales force like a donkey chasing a carrot on a string. I have seen hopeful naive new cult members coerced into huge advance service payments to the cult, spending vast amounts of their inheritances. I know of individuals who have paid the cult in excess of $100,000 for counseling in a matter of months. I know of one individual from France who spent over $200,000 for services at the Clearwater, Florida center. I have seen and have been part of it, as I was trained as a cult salesman. I was trained to get huge amounts of money from cult members by: l) locating all their assets and potential assets through loans from relatives or banks, 2) by helping them devise stories for relatives or bankers that would be acceptable explanations of why they need the money, 3) and by constantly reassuring and pressuring the cult members to get money or loans by "selling" them the conviction that it was the right thing to do for themselves, for the cult, for all mankind.
We salesmen were not concerned to leave cult members with any back-up assets. Our lives consisted of commands and orders from executives and the inner circle to get more money now! I sometimes felt bad about this after reading the cult's internal directive ordering that Scientology organizations are never, never to borrow money from anyone. Yet as a cult salesman I constantly hammered people to get loans. I never understood the discrepancy and finally stopped thinking about it, after being assured by seniors that I was doing the right thing for the customer and for the cult.
While I was receiving services in Milwaukee, the salesman for the Minneapolis center kept calling me to go up there and get the next load of services the cult offered. I finally did, with my girlfriend, Edee Dissmore. In Minneapolis I paid more than five thousand dollars for services for both of us. We received pre-clear auditing.
I call the pre-clear auditing that we received "Level 1"
-- not to be confused with "Academy Levels I - IV" which
are cult training levels. The cult's actions and motives can be
understood by looking at a Scientologist's career divided into
3 levels.
Level 1 is the level of of truisms that anyone could agree with. This is where Scientology presents itself as like any other religion or normal philosophy. Level 1 auditing looks like simple communication. Most mental health therapists might not see much harm in it.
Level 1 serves a key function for the cult by associating Scientology with some truth, a limited workability, and an acceptable religious "image." It creates a vitally needed base of agreeable truth (and social companionship) that sticks cult members to it in spite of the outrageous conduct and ideas which these same people will encounter on Levels 2 and 3. Hubbard said that the best way to stick someone and hold them is to attach a subtle lie to acceptable truths. Most individuals will assume that since they believe A B C and D are true, E must also be true since it comes from the same place as A B C and D.
At Level one you will see total and complete sincerity on the part of cult members in proclaiming the benefits of their cult association. They have new friends, have put attention on areas of their lives they may have ignored in the past, and have introduced some measure of structure and discipline. They are told that they are better, that they are "improving conditions." The things asserted to them are things they want to believe. Level 1 Scientology is an mask, three decades in development, for the grand illusion and the seduction of deceived member into the programming of Level 2 and Level 3.
Don't ever waste time attacking Level 1 Scientology. It is real
to the individuals concerned and after three decades of practice
it will stand up to the most careful scrutiny. Level 1 Scientology
is the link, base, invincible foundation and springboard of workable
"everybody knows" truths and religious image vital to
preparing cult members for their assimilation into Levels 2 and
3. Level 1 Scientology serves as a qualifier and test of loyalty
for new cult members. If they can't reach the top of it, they
are probably security risks and shouldn't be exposed to the "sensitive"
cult materials on Levels 2 and 3.
Level 2 is the area of confidential mind domination techniques: Power and Power Plus processes, R6EW, the Clearing Course, OT 1, OT 2, OT 3, OT 3X, OT 4, OT 5, OT 6, OT 7, (OT 8-29 are claimed to exist but are not released), L-10, L-11, L-12, NED for OT's, and Super Power. All the preceding are names of confidential highly guarded secret materials.
These techniques, if ever examined by qualified professionals outside the cult, will be found to be dangerous, sophisticated methods of brainwashing and mental domination. Hubbard said that if a foreign government ever got these processes they would throw the population into a super controlled slave society. The cult itself, in secret materials you study when you start Level 2, warns about unauthorized exposure to these materials. You are told, in no uncertain terms, that these procedures can cause illness, death, insanity, personality splits, and schizophrenia (but only to outsiders, not to cult members).
Even non-confidential promotional materials advertise that the upper-level processes contain dangerous and powerful techniques for the mind and body. David Mayo, Hubbard's right hand man, in a cult promotion, warned of the "serious body consequences" that could occur if a "clear" received New Era Dianetics (NED) auditing. Hubbard, in another policy directive, extended the danger to "clears" who ever had Dianetics after "clear."
The cult has set up the most elaborate security measures to protect its monopoly on these materials. They are triple-locked under 24-hour guard at all worldwide "advanced organizations." One cult member bragged to me that the security was so good in the cult's early days that the Advanced Organization, whose job is to administer Level 2 services, had been moved five times around the world to avoid suspected infiltration and seizure of Hubbard's secret materials. Everything -- all files and dangerous documents had been moved in 24 hours from Los Angeles to Spain, and in 24 hour intervals around the world.
Level 2 uses a combination of repeater techniques, fear association techniques, and other processes to reduce the will to say or do anything but what the cult orders in its policies and directives. I can only describe the result. I am not qualified to analyze how it does these things. After Level 2 programming I found myself in fear and unquestionably willing to give more and more of my personal assets to the cult. It was my duty now to defend the cult and its secrets to the full extent of my power. I became willing to risk my own personal safety to protect the cult's secrets, far beyond any "social" loyalty I had ever felt on Level 1.
On Level 2 I started to experience various compulsions I had never experienced before. I started getting pains, illnesses, and mental states of fear that were beyond anything I ever dreamed I would get from Scientology. Perverse sexual compulsions from "past life" auditing dwelled in my mind. At times I felt like I was ready to be triggered into violent emotion and action with the proper restimulation. Many times during my level 2 indoctrination, both in the cult environment and in the outside world, I dropped into a seething rage for no apparent reason. Before Level 2 I had never experienced anything like the force and violence of these hostile emotions. I began to despise anyone who opposed the cult.
Later I came to understand that I had been programmed with "trigger" words that could, in an instant, produce almost uncontrollable emotional or thought reactions. They could be "keyed in" at a later date by the cult if to do so was expedient to their purpose. I feel that the mind domination techniques of Level 2 reduce the "social" loyalty of Level 1 cult members to a stimulus-response, unreasoned, uncontrollable, and compulsive kind of loyalty. It feels as if some kind of machine has been put in your head to direct and monitor your behavior. This is beyond "1984." Level 2 produces Jonestown-type fanaticism but the potential lies covered by seemingly normal behavior until needed by the cult leaders.
I believe that one part of the technique, as with voodoo, is making you believe in their power down to the deepest level of your subconscious mind.
It was only after months away from the cult, questioning, suffering, writing this affidavit and coming to understand their methods, that I was able to break through enough of the fear and the conscious and unconscious hold they had on me, to be able to write this.
Since no other level 2 cult members have spoken up until now,
I can only suppose that errors were made in my programming. Scientology
processes are programmed in a very specific sequence by another
cult member called a "case supervisor." As in any technique
involving individual judgment and decision points, there can be
errors or variations in delivery. An accumulation of incorrect
programming is the only explanation I can see for my not now being
just as I was before, a zombie to Hubbard's orders. This may also
explain other less vocal cult defectors, many of whom are waiting
to be broken out of their fearful silence.
[Since 1980, when this was written, many other "level
2" Scientologists have come forward with stories that corroborate
this manuscript. -Ed.]
I feel it is imperative that the cult's Level 2 mind domination
techniques be examined on a public health basis, for there probably
is a basis to Hubbard's greatest fear, that this data may escape
his monopoly and be seen by health professionals (or captured
by the Russians).
Level 2, in most cases, is the base and springboard of total loyalty required to enter Level 3. There are exceptions of certain highly trusted individuals, not Level 2, who are allowed very limited access to Level 3 confidential materials. These materials are the cult's area of greatest legal risk. Information in Level 3 is strictly on a "need to know" basis. No cult member on Level 3 knows more than he has to, so if he gets caught and "turns" on the cult (which is almost unheard of), he cannot incriminate other covert programs.
A book called "The Art of War" is the "Bible" of Level 3. The main purpose of Level 3 is to recruit and train the most fanatically loyal and zealous cult members as covert intelligence agents and operatives. They will work in their respective areas in life for the cult's purpose of furthering the cult's propaganda, attacking enemies, and legal defense. The Guardian's Office (lately renamed "Office of Special Affairs") is the command and information center for Level 3 activity. It is the training center for cult agents and operatives. It is the center for the encoding of secret texts and orders. The Guardian's Office is a highly trained and totally fanatical worldwide network of thousands of agents and operatives, similar in function to the C.I.A. or K.G.B. Guardian's Office files contain programs and training manuals that teach new recruits the "tools of the trade." No religion existing today has anything like the Guardian's Office.
The Guardian's Office should not be underestimated. I believe the F.B.I. raids only skimmed the tip of the iceberg in discovering what illegal activities the cult has perpetrated against individuals, organizations, and the government. Not understanding the cult's codes, nomenclature and structure, the F.B.I. could not coordinate the evidence they had gathered. The cult's sophisticated code systems are all but incomprehensible to anyone other than those for whom they were designed on a "need to know" basis.
Level 3 is the cult's area of planning and execution for its international political and economic goal of worldwide influence and dominance. From the best that I can put together, the cult is working toward a form of one-world government with their agents in key positions or influencing key positions. The thinking inside the cult, and I'm completely serious when I say this, is: they sincerely plan to take their cult methodologies to other planets to further expand -- which of course justifies an unlimited, heroic effort to acquire complete control of this planet's resources which will be required for the expansion. Yes, it sounds wild and unbelievable. The cult knows that no one will believe it. They count on that. Who would ever believe a "religion" to be a worldwide conspiracy dedicated to programming every man, woman, and child on earth? The cult's real goals are concealed by their easier-to-believe PR about bringing order, sanity, and spiritual freedom and "clearing" mankind.
I know from firsthand experience that the cult's inner circle, the leaders of the cult, and almost everyone who has been programmed on Level 2, believe themselves to be ''aliens'' from other planets who were trapped on earth 76 million years ago by a tyrant who overthrew a galactic governing body called "The Galactic Confederation."
76 million years ago the tyrant "Zemu" (sometimes "Zenu") supposedly subjected us all to massive brainwashing to make us forget who and what we are. He inflicted mental and physical damage on we who are now the present population of earth, as you will learn in the section describing the secret OT 3 materials. The cult believes that as "spirits" they never die -- only evolve from lifetime to lifetime. They believe they have done this for the past 76 million years on Earth, in forced ignorance of what happened 76 million years ago, and that they would still be ignorant and disenfranchised if Hubbard hadn't come along and "awakened them" with OT 3.
They believe that Sea Org members are "the generals and leaders of all the star systems." They believe it is their new duty and responsibility to "wake up other spirits" to their true identity and to what happened 76 million years ago, by using the Level 2 programming. The cult calls this "clearing the planet."
The true intention is, by using Hubbard's compilation of Level 2 mind domination techniques, to create a super controlled beyond-1984 society with the Guardian's Office and the Sea Organization as actual or defacto rulers of the planet, and you-know-who as acting "God." The secret Level 2 materials contain documentation of the 76-million-year-old catastrophe story and the data I am relating.
Now you can understand the secrecy of this cult and the extreme security measures it takes to protect Level 2 and Level 3 data.
Hubbard takes the typical science fiction "aliens have landed" plot one further step. He says they were here in the first place and have always been here, at least for 76 million years. Earth, he says, is a "prison" planet. All the criminals, geniuses, artists, rebellious political leaders, and almost every General in the universe who opposed the tyrant "Zemu," were rounded up and implanted by Zemu (implant is a cult word not unlike brainwashing) and incarcerated here on earth in ignorance and forgetfulness.
It's scary looking at this data from outside the cult, but to those indoctrinated at Level 2 it is quite romantic and egotistically satisfying because they (those cult members active now) were the old generals, geniuses, artists and leaders of the universe, trapped here in a long-gone war. Hubbard, as discoverer of the Level 2 "secrets," is the savior and salvation to cult members since it was he who "woke them up" to the "truth."
When you really get the idea of this cult setting up a worldwide network of agents and operatives to push the cult into worldwide power and dominance, and that they aren't doing it for any existing government but sincerely and with desperate seriousness in loyalty to their age-old military brethern, to take the best of the "old star days" and reclaim their birthright in a new galactic government with earth as the first planet, and that in doing this they consider themselves above any moral or legal restraint, you will get an idea why the cult so fears public exposure of its secrets and plans -- and why such exposure must occur before this cult acquire any real power..
I'll give you an idea of what lengths the cult will go to hide
their Level 2 secrets or discredit any leak of them. In 1971 journalist
Paulette Cooper published a book called "The Scandal of Scientology"
which contains Level 2 materials that apparently a "Robert
Kaufman" had leaked to her. Cooper obviously did not understand
those materials, but parts of them are included in her book. The
cult launched a major covert operation called "Operation
Freakout" to frame Cooper on criminal charges and have her
incarcerated in a mental institution (this is documented in materials
seized by the F.B.I. in their raid on Scientology's LA headquarters).
They wanted to be certain that neither Cooper or her book would
ever be resurrected after the cult had intimidated her publisher
through lawsuits and removed the book from distribution.
After receiving my Level 1 indoctrination in Minneapolis, I went to Los Angeles for the "Power" and "Power Plus" levels -- after paying the Los Angeles "church" more than two thousand dollars. "Power" is the entrance point of Level 2. On Power processes you are asked to "locate a source" over and over again until you finally "cognite" that you are a "source." The instant I became aware of the correct answer I was knocked unconscious for several seconds. I felt nothing at first and then woke up in what I thought was some other space. The auditor ended the session. For the next 20 minutes I had the totally new and bizarre feeling that I could create energy and it was flowing off my body.
After 20 minutes it was gone. I felt terrible, as if I had lost
something very important that I had to have back. I was deeply
upset by the disappearance of this feeling. (Perhaps I had seen,
but could not admit even to myself, that the expected sci-fi "abilities"
were bogus.) I told the case supervisor and they put me back on
Power Plus, a level they had said previously that I didn't need.
They asked me questions about people and planets that had worked
against me or harmed me. I don't even know where I got the answers
I gave them. It was very strange. After that, I was done. I did
not regain the previous euphoria. My emotions cycled back and
forth, up and down, and were very unpredictable and strong.
Before I went back to my business, I was convinced by a recruiter to join the Sea Organization. The Sea Org contract is for a billion years -- and brother, they mean it. I was told by the recruiter about a confidential policy that gives you 18 years leave between bodies, after you die but before you have to report back for active duty. I signed the contract, convinced it was my "duty" to be loyal and help the cult "save the world."
After signing the contract, I went back to Wisconsin to tell my girlfriend that we were going to sell everything and be Sea Org members and save the world. At first she resisted, but after a while she consented. During this time, shortly after my first steps in Level 2, I had three uncontrollable outbursts of anger and violence. They were so startling that I didn't understand them, since in my earlier years I had never acted in such an intolerant and irrational manner. In one incident I almost hit my father because I felt he was trying to harm the cult. I was worried about how I had changed.
Shortly after I got back to Los Angeles, I began to complain that something was wrong. I wasn't feeling like I used to. I wasn't acting the same. Strange thoughts were entering my mind. So, the cult put me on Power correction auditing and then other corrections. I felt good for a while, then worse after the subjective euphoria of the session wore off.
During my first two years on staff I had 37 ethics handlings, as they call them. These were later said to have been done wrong and to be the cause of my problems. I remember one ethics handling where I "discovered" my father to be a bad person from 76 million years ago and the reason for all my cult problems. I remember the imagined hate I felt for him. Although I had arguments with him (as normal parents and children do) while growing up, I always loved and respected my father. Now the love seemed to be gone and replaced with a cult loyalty which required that I stop my father from stopping me in the cult, or from investigating the cult. I was instructed to maintain a public relations "front" with my parents, to keep the cult safe and so that I could proceed with my salvation on cult Level 2. I can tell you, it was so strange to react that way, having a whole new set of loyalties and being willing to sacrifice my feelings and loyalties to my parents. I seemed to be compelled by some force I didn't understand.
My girlfriend had joined the staff at Celebrity Center in Los Angeles on the billion year contract and she wasn't happy or making it either. I was told we would have to separate because she was a "suppressive person." I was to go to the Sea Org ship to get away from her. She was removed from her position and put in the cult kitchen as a dishwasher. While in the kitchen she spilled boiling water and was burned over 30% of her body. They didn't even tell me that she was hospitalized for almost a week.
They wanted me to go to Los Angeles to convince her to get out of the hospital and be cared for by the cult -- and to make sure she was persuaded not to sue the cult for damages or insurance money. I was so brainwashed at the time that I did it, because when I was told she was an "SP" I cut off any humanitarian feeling or love for her. I had read and believed the many words Hubbard wrote about SP's and other cult enemies having no rights or dignity. After she left the hospital and came back to the cult center, I went back to the ship. While I was at the ship she called my father to take her home. Without me knowing, they had been keeping her in quarantine and treating her cruelly because she was a "suppressive person." My father helped her get back to Wisconsin and helped care for her until she got well again. To this day the cult still sends her bills saying that she owes them money from the time she was working for them without pay.
I stayed in the cult, unquestioningly locked into its beliefs by fear and unknown compulsions. I was having all kinds of staff problems and was growing disenchanted, but still was held by some command unknown to me at the time. Finally the cult ordered me to the Rehabilitation Project Force, implying I was evil and had to rehabilitate myself (as well as work). It was the most degrading experience of my life. The R.P.F. was on the ship "Excalibur" in San Pedro, California. We were confined, except for cleaning below the ship's decks, in a tiny, tiny area. The food was so bad that one person, Bill Wade, had to be hospitalized for malnutrition. I spent days tearing at myself wondering why I was so bad and resistive to cult orders and policies. They were "saving mankind," and I was supposedly working against the only organization that could "save mankind." I was audited and corrected on past auditing over and over until I couldn't take it (the programming) any more. I planned to secretly jump ship. When I tried to jump ship I was caught and held on the ship until executives came from the ethics section and warned me of what would happen if I left and was declared an "SP" and in treason. I cowered down and went back to the R.P.F. Several weeks later I was released from the Rehabilitation Project Force as a "mistaken assignment" there.
I went back to work at Celebrity Center and was given an OK to
go on the next Level 2 step, called "R6EW." I had proven
my loyalty. On this level you are given lists of "trigger"
words and instructions from your "case supervisor."
You must go over and over these lists until you observe a certain
"E Meter" phenomenon. On the next step, the Clearing
Course, you are given further word lists, sequences of words,
and descriptions of objects to "audit" on. You also
see a movie where Hubbard talks about having worked on these "OT"
materials for over 300 years. On the Clearing Course Hubbard describes
and has you audit a "light" that makes you sleepy.
"OT-l" is a tiny level you do after becoming a "clear" where you go out on the street and do mental exercises. "OT-2" is many, many very bizarre word lists and ideas and concepts you "audit" over and over and backwards and forwards. I believe that this is a key level for cult loyalty and control programming.
"OT-3" is the key level of all the cult's levels. It is the most shocking of all. A large portion of the materials on this level is handwritten and signed by Hubbard. The big "secrets of the universe" that Hubbard supposedly discovered are finally revealed -- the real cause of insanity and irrational behavior and schizophrenia.
Hubbard starts by telling you he has discovered that human beings are not just one entity or spirit. He says that each of us is actually many, many, many spirits (called "thetans") trapped and stuck together in one body. The voices you hear in your head are actually other spirits.
He describes the "great catastrophe" that occurred on earth 76 million years ago that caused these spirits to get stuck together. He tells about how the evil tyrant "Zemu," who had galactic power at the time, rounded up all his adversaries and, in an effort to solve the galactic overpopulation problem, froze them in ice blocks and dropped them into volcanoes on Earth. Then, Hubbard says, "Zemu" dropped H bombs on the volcanoes. The force of the explosions blew the spirits out of their bodies and up onto "electronic nets" surrounding the volcanoes. Zemu's renegade force then supposedly collected the spirits off the electronic nets and electronically brainwashed and "welded" them together into "clusters" of spirits. This was done in Hawaii and Las Palmas. A cluster could be a few spirits or millions of spirits. These other spirits, or "demons" as he calls them in Dianetics, are the source of evil, aberration, and insanity. The action of OT-3 is excorcism of these troublesome spirits by telepathically auditing each of them, one by one.
Hubbard teaches in the OT-3 materials that all human beings on Earth, who think they are one person, one spirit or one soul, are actually many, many spirits but don't know it. He goes on to say that most people, before OT-3, are usually controlled by a dominant spirit (your apparent identity) which controls the group of spirits in each body. I found out that the purpose and design of the "Power Processes" are to break one spirit out of the group and empower him, making him dominant so the whole group of spirits is easier to control through the spirit who received the power processes. Strangely, this dominant "personality" always turns out to be a loyal Scientologist. This selective empowering of a cult persona, guided and justified by Hubbard's mythology, could explain the massive personality changes that cult members go through.
I spent somewhere between one and two hundred hours auditing on OT-3. The sequence of auditing is as follows. You first mentally locate the spirits in, on, or around your body and start mentally talking to them. Imagine the emotional stress of talking to Hubbard's demons for hundreds of hours -- in your leg, arm, nose, groin -- in any part of your body or area near your body! After you think you have established "communication" with one of these spirits you audit it, starting a million years ago. Sometimes you have to audit a spirit on what Hubbard calls "the first incident in the existence of a spirit in this universe." He says this occurred one quadrillion years ago and consisted of total blackness followed by cherubs pulled by a fiery chariot. The story goes that the cherubs came out of the chariot, blew thunderous claps on their trumpets, then went back into the chariot and disappeared. Total blackness then was dumped on the spirit. This incident is called "Incident l." I remember hearing about a Willie B. Wilson, a Texas oil millionaire, who read OT-3, panicked, and would not believe it or go on. The cult soon indoctrinated away his doubts and fears with more auditing -- at his expense.
These spirits, after you audit them, are supposed to be exorcised and leave your body. They go find another body, usually at a hospital maternity ward. But if you exorcise your demons incorrectly they will go into a "spin" that Hubbard calls "free wheeling." He says your body will not be able to sleep for days on end and you will die from illness, usually pneumonia. Hubbard talks about demons extensively in his "Dianetics" book, but you never for a minute think he means "demons" literally. On OT-3 you find out that he really does.
A cult member at Level 1, with his smiling sincerity, has no idea that he will become the victim of efforts to exorcise demonic spirits from him on OT-3. If he knew, before the Level 2 programming, he would probably run 90 miles an hour from this ominous cult.
While doing OT-3, I broke down and couldn't take it any more.
I ran away for three days, the worst three days of my life. I
thought I was hearing the voices of demons talking to me. I drank
a lot trying to stop the voices and the fears. I thought I was
going to die because I had exorcised a demon in the wrong manner.
I was so terrified I couldn't sleep for three days, which convinced
me even further that the cult was right. I called a Guardian's
Office staff member named John Fisher who reminded me of the life-and-death
danger I was in and told me to come in right away. I was terrified
and so I did. They gave me more auditing and I believed I was
better and safe, so I calmed down.
After that, the Guardian's Office dismissed me from staff, as I was a security risk. The cult then told me I owed them $9,000 for services received while working for almost nothing for two years. I was told I would have to pay before I could finish OT-3, and was still in danger because I had not finished it. With only one thing on my mind ("get that money!"), I went to Denver and then to Minneapolis, where I worked as a salesman as hard as I could to raise the money. I was terrified of a recurrence of those three days in LA. I thought I would get all kinds of illnesses if I didn't finish OT-3 fast. Motivated by this life and death necessity, I raised the money fast.
While in Minneapolis I ran into an auditor, Katy Regan, who was
interested in a romantic relationship with me and gave me another
100 hours of auditing. I was getting worse, having accidents,
having to drink to stop the "demons" that were never
there before Hubbard's OT-3, and I was getting ill constantly.
Kate Regan lent me $5,000 that was paid to the cult beyond the
$9,000 I had to pay after being dismissed from staff. I went to
Clearwater, Florida, and received 25 more hours of auditing and,
as usual, felt better for a while after riding the subjective
euphoria. Afterward it disappeared again -- as usual.
I was OK'd by the cult again to continue OT-3. I flew back to LA and finished the level. After finishing OT-3, I decided to move away and start my own business. Away from cult auditing I started doing better. I realize now that I should have stayed away, but the cult salesmen heard that I had money again. This time it was Hubbard's new miracle cure, "L-12," $7,500 for 25 hours of auditing. I was told by Barry Watson, when he spoke in Minneapolis, that this was the "Immortality Rundown" and that after receiving it a person would be able to select his next body and parents in his next lifetime. I was told that an individual can never become a potential trouble source (PTS) again and never get ill again. I felt compelled to buy this level to protect myself with the best "insurance policy" ever written (L-12). I got sick six times shortly after L-12. I started feeling like "many people" again. I was afraid again.
I remembered what a cult member had told me about the "L's." He had been there with Hubbard when he developed this next wonder cure. He said the L's were so powerful they bypassed the normal protections of the mind. If they screwed up the L's on a person, you might as well build that person a wooden box. Well, they tried to correct L-12 on me three times. They had really screwed it up this time. I was growing more fearful and confused -- now even upset with the cult as well. I remembered Hubbard's words from HCO PL 23 May 1968: "We are selling actual salvage from death." I kept on, for some unknown reason, still believing the cult could be my salvation and that of the planet.
I went back to my business and started having problems such as uncontrollable emotional outbursts, "demons" talking in my head, and more confusions. I started to have problems keeping my business together. I started fighting with my employees. My emotionalism and depressions were getting worse and worse.
Then I heard about Hubbard's newest cure, "NED for OT's." It promised to handle all my past auditing problems and was the answer to the "serious bodily consequences" said to result from incorrect auditing after "clear." I knew that this was it. I borrowed $20,000 from my father under the false pretense of needing it for business expansion. I just had to have the money for NED-OT. My health, life, and sanity depended on it. I gave the cult another 14,000.
Hubbard calls NED for OT's "the second wall of fire" (OT-3 had been merely "THE wall of fire"). On NED-OT, Hubbard talks about a yet another kind of spirits that surround and are attached to the body, ones which think they are "dead." Hubbard calls them "dormant." He describes these spirits as living in the past, believing they are in another time, so dumb and low in conscious awareness that they can believe they are almost anything. They may think they are animals, insects, objects like chairs, machinery, air -- anything you can imagine, they can be. These spirits influence you by making images and presenting them to you. When they "wake up" they copy almost everything they "see." You are warned on this level not to watch TV because it upsets the demons. Hubbard answers the question of inherited insanity by stating that these newly discovered "demons" can hop from one person to another and can be passed on from family member to family member.
In the NED-OT materials, Hubbard calls F.B.I. and C.I.A. men "dormant clusters" and doomed for eternity. He depicts them as sub-human, to make it easier for cult members to strike against them with no remorse.
I received 37 hours of auditing on NED for OT's. I was the 10th completion on earth and came off that level totally believing that it worked. After all, this was my last hope and I had to believe or be trapped forever. After I finished this level, the cult flew me all over the U.S. to speak to large audiences and give them fantastic subjective success testimonials. They paid all my expenses. They distributed my success stories all over the U.S. My subjective euphoria from NED for OT's helped ignite a mass euphoria, sparked old cult members' hopes, and began the biggest cash boom the cult had ever seen.
My subjective euphoria remained intact for two months (perhaps sustained by all the attention) and then disappeared again. The same old things came back only much, much worse. New "demons" and new fears arose. I spent days in an almost catatonic state. I couldn't function. I was afraid to go to work and see people. I started drinking heavily to get rid of the nightmares. I felt betrayed. I wanted to get away from the cult.
A horrifying thought hung in my mind -- it was better to destroy myself and sacrifice myself rather than betray the cult. I felt so upset. I was torn between these self-destructive thoughts and an emerging desire to take legal action against them. But the unknown compulsions once again compelled me to protect the cult at any expense.
The Level 2 indoctrination was too strong. I called the cult and they hurried me back to Clearwater. By this time my business was in trouble due to my inability to function, my mental and emotional condition, and the upsets that occurred while I was there. The cult audited me 25 more hours, but it was useless. They had screwed up their programming too bad for even them to repair. I was asking questions that you, as a cult member, just don't ask. I wasn't buying the propaganda any more. At this time, while I was upset and confused, they coerced me into signing a $12,500 I.O.U. for 25 more hours of auditing. They also tried to get me to sign self-incriminating affidavits, which I refused.
I decided to leave. They met with me and told me that I should not see anyone in the mental health field and tell them about my auditing and my problems. I promised them I wouldn't. I wanted to be left alone.
I knew that I would be seen as a security risk and threat to Scientology,
and I knew what that meant. For protection, I told them I had
written up all my experiences with the cult and put it in safe
deposit boxes with instructions that the data go to the F.B.I.
if I was harmed. They are cold and ruthless, but logical in their
ruthlessness and would not bring the authorities down on themselves
by doing me physical harm while there was any chance that I would
stay quiet.
It was not until recently that I understood why the cult started a black PR campaign to drive me out of business. Someone in the inner circle must have decided that, since my programming wasn't working, I was a security risk and something had to be done to destroy any possible means I might have to finance an attack against the cult. Two Guardian's Office agents, John Matoon and Karen Kuyper, started a set of rumors and passed them to other cult members. They said I was unethical, violated cult secret data, and crazy. The rumors caused others in the cult to call an investigation of me and my business. Defending myself and running my business at the same time was impossible while trying to keep my head on after the auditing I had received.
The cult rumors caused upset and turmoil in my company, and cult members who worked for me began to leave. Customers mysteriously stopped paying their bills. $60,000 I had extended to fellow cult members was not being paid back to me. Then I found out that letters had been sent to them or they had been called and told not to do business with me. At that time 95% of my customers were cult members. When they would not pay me, I couldn't pay my people and my bills. The next year I had to close a business that had done almost a million dollars gross and earned more than 12% pre-tax net because of the cult's Black PR against me. The following is quoted from a letter distributed by W.I.S.E. ("World Institute of Scientology Enterprises," a cult division). I had asked them to help me collect money owed to me by other cult members.
"With American Factors now being the legal owners of the invoices you have recieved (sic) from Wollersheim and NF Marketing, the sums owed by your company must now be paid to American Factors. I am apprising you of this, not based on any desire to represent Wollersheim and get his debts paid but to alert you to the fact that non payment of debts to a non Scientology company can bring about legal suit in an effort to collect these funds. Wollersheim was on a WISE ethics handling program having been assigned a condition of Confusion by WISE and having had a Non Enturbulation Order placed on him by the Church of Scientology. He has gone out of communication with WISE on this handling and it is probable that no ethics change is occuring (sic) with the current gradient of ethics in use. You would be well advised not to deal with him as he is not in good standing with WISE." - Roger C. Barnes, Executive Director WISE.
Since leaving the cult and by writing this, I have begun to understand what was done to me. I have started to feel more like myself again, as I was before I got involved in the cult. I am in communication again with both my parents whom I love very much. I am trying to reverse and adjust to the fear and propaganda the cult programmed into me. I look forward to living a normal life again. I have gone back to the basic and humanitarian beliefs of the Catholic religion I was raised in.
I have had many problems throughout this whole ordeal, all relating
to fears and ideas from Level 2 Scientology -- nightmares being
the least of it.
CULT TACTICS, POLICY, & STRATEGY
The following is a list of tactics Scientology uses or has planned to use on its critics, adversaries, or enemies. Tactics which I have not personally witnessed are documented by material seized in the F.B.I.'s raid on the cult's Los Angeles headquarters. The F.B.I. materials are public record in a court case which sent 11 top Scientology officials to prison, including Hubbard's wife.
I have culled and listed these tactics and "church" policies for several reasons:
l) To better understand Scientology's actual activities, as opposed to the PR image they assert,
2) To prepare myself for actions that Scientology will use against me and my friends and family,
3) To communicate to others who speak or write about Scientology what dangers they may face, so they too can prepare,
4) To show that this cult's conduct is illegal, immoral, outrageous, and unworthy of sanction by any civilized church or organization,
5) To encourage public demand for a full investigation of this cult's activities, policies, and finances through Grand Juries and other legal measures, and
6) To make this situation publicly known, so that others may not have to go through the pain, loss, and upsets I have experienced with Scientology.
The tactics listed below are not the "renegade" action of an isolated few, but are a direct expression of the policies and "Command Intention" of cult founder L. Ron Hubbard.
"If anyone is getting industrious trying to enturbulate or stop Scientology or its activities, I can make Captain Bligh look like a Sunday-school teacher. There is probably no limit on what I would do to safeguard Man's only road to freedom against persons who...seek to stop Scientology or hurt Scientologists." - L. Ron Hubbard, August 15, 1967
In a policy directive, Hubbard exhorts cult members to "investigate noisily" (i.e., harass) individuals who attack the "church." (Emphasis added.)
From an August l5, 1960 policy letter:
"Always find or manufacture enough threats against them to cause them to sue for peace."
Does "manufacture threats" sound like the religious practice of any present day church? Does it sound humanitarian? The key words are definitely "find or manufacture." Judge for yourself as you read these pages if the cult, under the policy directives of its leader, is willing to manufacture threats if they can't find an existing vulnerability.
In a confidential board policy letter of 30 May 1974 entitled "Handling Hostile Agents/Dead Agenting", the following statement is attributed to Hubbard.
"It is my specific intention that by the use of professional PR tactics any opposition be not only dulled but permanently eradicated."
To counter what Hubbard labeled the "black propaganda" of others against Scientology, the founder wrote:
"If there will be a long term threat you are to immediately evaluate and originate a black PR campaign to destroy the person's repute and to discredit them so thoroughly that...they will be ostracized."
Looking further at Hubbard's own discussion of Black PR, from HCO PL 21 November 1972, "How to Handle Black Propaganda":
"Black propaganda" (Black - bad or derogatory, propaganda = pushing out statements or ideas) is the term used to destroy reputation or public belief in persons, companies or nations. It is a common tool of agencies who are seeking to destroy real or fancied enemies or seek dominance in some field. The technique seeks to bring a reputation so low that the person, company or nation is denied any rights whatever by "general agreement." It is then possible to destroy the person, company or nation with a minor attack if the Black Propaganda itself has not already accomplished this."
What present day religion by deliberate policy attempts to ruin a person's, company's or nation's reputation so that the hated entity will be denied all rights and be ostracized? This sounds more like the tactics of mobsters, or a greedy and unethical business intent on eliminating competition for the sake of financial profit.
In a policy of 11 May 1971, Hubbard confesses:
"Anyone engaging in Black Propaganda is either using a wrong way to right a wrong or confessing he can't make it in open competition."
This policy letter was broadly distributed for PR reasons, to suggest that Scientology doesn't do that. The confidential May 30 1974 policy was for internal use only, to eliminate criticism of Scientology: one policy for image and one for action.
"You find out where he or she works or worked, doctor, dentist, friends, neighbors, anyone and phone them up and say "I am investigating Mr./Mrs....for criminal activities as he/she has been trying to prevent man's freedom and is restricting my religious freedom and that of my friends and children" etc....You say now and then, "I have really got some astounding facts,"etc, (use some generality) it doesn't matter if you get much info just be noisy, it's very odd at first but it makes fantastic sense and works."
Hubbard is advising how to destroy a person's reputation and repute with generalities.
In a policy called "The Anti-Social Personality The Anti-Scientologist," Hubbard lists some very revealing attributes of the "anti-social personality":
1. "He or she speaks only in very broad generalities...particularly when imparting rumor."
2. "Such a person deals mainly in bad news critical or hostile remarks..."
3. "The antisocial personality alters, to worsen, communication when he or she relays a message or news...Such a person also pretends to pass on "bad news" which is in actual fact invented."
8. "Many antisocial persons will freely confess to the most alarming crimes when forced to do so, but will have no faintest sense of responsibility for them."
Hubbard has described himself and Scientology.
TACTIC: Covert infiltration of organizations and agencies by cult members -- for three purposes, according to documents seized by the F.B.I.
A. To determine what negative data on Scientology exists so that it can be countered.
B. To provide an early warning system to alert the "church" of any threats of government action against Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard or his wife Mary Sue.
C. To obtain any data that reflects negatively on Scientology critics so that it can be used to discredit the critics.
Documents seized by the F.B.I. include "church" communications
outlining an elaborate campaign to infiltrate more than 130 government
agencies. (This hardly sounds like a "church" interested
in protecting privacy and Constitutional Rights, yet a favorite
defense of the "church" is that it is a religion whose
Constitutional Rights are being violated.)
TACTIC: Staging a fake hit and run auto accident involving a pedestrian (in an effort to disgrace Gabriel Cazares, a former mayor of Clearwater Florida and Scientology critic). This was discovered in "church" documents seized in the FBI raid.
TACTIC: Circulating false stories. Example: Mark Sableman,
reporter for the Clearwater Sun, was critical of Scientology.
According to documents seized by the F.B.I. Scientologists circulated
a rough draft of a fictitious news story under Sableman's name,
alleging that 19 Florida legislators were linked to the Mafia,
gambling interests, and were involved in bribery, blackmail, and
illegal transactions. This was intended to discredit Sableman
professionally in the eyes of the Florida Legislature.
TACTIC: Mailing bomb threats and framing a Scientology critic.
In its October 1977 raid, the F.B.I. uncovered documents that
showed the "church" had directed its agents to steal
Paulette Cooper's stationary, get her fingerprints on it, type
bomb threats on the stolen stationary, and send them to Henry
Kissinger and to the "church" itself. Then, the "church"
called the F.B.I. to report a bomb threat against it, and gave
Paulette Cooper's name as a suspect.
TACTIC: Harassment to the point where the victim will be incarcerated
in a mental institution. Paulette Cooper, a "church"
critic, was the victim of false bomb threats and an elaborately
planned "church" operation called "Operation Freakout"
whose purpose was to cause a mental breakdown and silence a cult
critic. Details of their plan were revealed after the F.B.I. raid.TACTIC:
Impersonating an individual to frame and discredit her.
Another tactic revealed in the "Operation Freakout"
documents was to impersonate and frame Paulette Cooper. The Paulette
Cooper impersonator was to go to a laundromat near Cooper's home,
act wild and crazy, threaten to kill the President, and then leave.
A second cult member inside the laundromat would tell the laundromat
personnel to report the threat made against the President.
TACTIC: Breaking into the office of a critic's attorney.
Cult documents seized by the F.B.I. show that the cult broke into
the offices of attorneys for critics and adversaries of the cult.
TACTIC: Swearing out false suits to discredit a critic.
In order to discredit Gene Allard, a former "church"
bookkeeping employee, Scientologists filed a suit claiming
he stole $27,000. The "church" knew that Allard
had turned their records over to the I.R.S. and hoped to discredit
him as a witness against the cult. Allard sued the cult and won
a $300,000 settlement for malicious prosecution.
TACTIC: Impersonating an individual hostile to Scientology
to gain access to information feared by the "church."
A "church" agent who had infiltrated the B.B.B. in 1974
(Miss Canavarro) persuaded B.B.B. officials to open their files
on Scientology to her husband, who she identified as a freelance
writer critical of Scientology. He was in fact a Scientologist
seeking out the B.B.B.'s files on Scientology.
TACTIC: Electronic eavesdropping and bugging. The F.B.I.
discovered, in their investigations, that the cult had bugged
I.R.S. meetings where the cult's tax status was discussed.
TACTIC: Creating "social reform" front groups
as a means of defending the cult by attacking its critics. Internal
policy directives seized by the F.B.I. seem to indicate that the
above is the real purpose of social reform groups the "church"
has set up.
TACTIC: Using a disgruntled member of an anti-Scientology group
to circulate anonymous pro-Scientology PR. An example of this
tactic occurred in June 1972 in England where a supposed member
of the National Association of Mental Health ("a disgruntled
doctor") circulated an unsigned leaflet derogatory of the
association's director and policies. Although it was not proven
conclusively, the association felt the source was Scientology
as they were involved in heated conflicts with the cult at that
time.
TACTIC: Cult agents obtain jobs in critic's organizations
for gathering intelligence covertly for the cult. This was documented
by evidence gathered in the F.B.I. raid.
TACTIC: Forced incarceration of a potential critic. Micheal
Meisner, a "church" member, was held under 24-hour guard
when he announced he was going to turn himself in to the authorities
for burglaries he had committed on behalf of Scientology. He finally
escaped his captivity and offered to cooperate with authorities.
His testimony led to the F.B.I. raid, convictions, and jail sentences
of 11 top "church" officials.
TACTIC: Make false identification as necessary to aid in
covert operations. The F.B.I. has documented that several Scientologists
made up false I.R.S. and Treasury Department ID's to gain access
to Scientology's files kept in those agencies.
TACTIC: Falsely claim that you were acting alone when caught
in illegal, immoral, or embarrassing situations during a "church"
operation. This is as old as Mission Impossible's self-destructing
tapes routine. This tactic was obfuscated by an official "church"
document and press release after the F.B.I. raid had documented
conspiracy. The obfuscation claimed that the "church"
does not condone illegal activities. Yet the 11 indicted "church"
members were the very highest officials in the intelligence section
whose very job, policy, and training from Hubbard's own directives
was to do that very thing their PR claimed the "church"
does not condone.
TACTIC: Use privileged "confessional" material against critics. A Scientology policy called the "Auditor's Code" promises not to reveal the secrets of a person who is receiving auditing. Scientology president Heber Jentz stated in a BBC television interview that such files are absolutely confidential. But the fact is that personal or embarrassing data told in confidence while in auditing will be used if needed to silence you. In the two-million dollar damage suit against Scientology which was won by a Portland woman, Julie Titchbourne, the cult's lawyer (Mr. Kennedy) said that Mrs. Titchbourne's auditing files (if admitted as evidence) would show that Mrs. Tichborne had problems with her parents, drugs, and sex.
There are many celebrities and even some politicians who have
received "confidential" auditing. Will their files be
brought out to embarrass them if they speak up against Scientology
or don't follow the cult's orders? Scientology's policies are
one thing - - its actions are another.
TACTIC: Breaking and entering. Clearwater Sun reporter
Mark Sableman's apartment was broken into and his typewriter used
to write a phony and discrediting story about Florida legislators.
The F.B.I. discovered in seized "church" documents that
Scientologists had circulated the phony story under Sableman's
name. Paulette Cooper's apartment was also entered illegally.
TACTIC: Framing critics for lewd sexual conduct. A Scientology
document seized by the F.B.I. labeled "Priority A" outlined
an operation planned on cult critic Sableman. The plan called
for an elderly Scientology agent from outside the area to go to
the editor of the Clearwater Sun and accuse Sableman of
molesting the agent's son. The Scientology operative was to throw
a lurid magazine in the editor's face and scream, "Look what
he gave to my son, not to mention what the pervert did...sob,
sob, sob, sob, my Johnny."
TACTIC: Framing a critic in connection with organized crime.
The same plan "Priority A" called for linking Betty
Orsini (a critic of Scientology and reporter for the St. Petersburg
Times) to an organized crime figure in Florida. A Scientology
operative was to deliver an envelope containing $100 cash to the
editor of the St. Petersburg Times and say the envelope
was in return for information Mrs. Orsini had given the mobster.
TACTIC: Burglary and theft. The St. Petersburg Times'
lawyer's offices were burglarized by "church" operatives,
as F.B.I. raid documents revealed.
TACTIC: Stealing books and materials from public agencies.
While I was on staff at "Celebrity Center," a Scientology
organization in Los Angeles, another staff member (Ken Lee) came
to me and proudly announced he had secretly stolen books and articles
from the various libraries in L.A. County. This allegedly was
part of a Guardian's Office intelligence action to remove books
and articles critical of Scientology from the city's library system.
These tactics which Scientology has used or planned to use against its critics show the true face of the cult as revealed by its actions, not its words. One must wonder about a cult that regularly cries "religious harassment" and "violation of the First Amendment" to defend illegal, inhumane, and immoral activities toward others.
There are questions of conscience to be answered. Is this cult putting itself above and outside the law, the Constitution, and ethical treatment of other human beings? How far will the cult go? Will the murder of critics or enemies occur -- or has it occurred? Is a new Jonestown brewing as authorities close in on this cult's crimes?
After 11 years in Scientology, my personal opinion is that the Jonestown potential does exist. After Jonestown, many people wondered how our intelligence and law enforcement agencies could have so completely failed to understand that cult and its fanaticism. Are we going to repeat that same mistake with Scientology? Did we learn nothing about cult fanaticism from Jonestown?
On June 25, 1971, on the Flagship "Apollo" (Hubbard's secret home and Sea Org headquarters) Susan Meister died, an apparent suicide. A full investigation should be opened into her death. Maybe she was trying to leave the cult, as Micheal Meisner did after breaking away from his 24-hour-a-day cult guards. Maybe she was receiving the same kind of auditing on upper confidential levels that almost drove me to self destruction before I got away from the cult.
Hubbard's own words and policy predict the lengths to which cult members will go. In an Oct 7 1962 policy called "Fair Game", he states:
"Fair Game may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. Fair Game may be tricked, sued, or lied to, or destroyed."- L. Ron Hubbard.
"Injured by any means" and "destroyed" are very strong and explicit words from the head of a cult. Jim Jones also had strong and explicit instructions in life and death matters too.
In another policy called "The Responsibility of Leaders," 12 February 1967, Hubbard lays out the secret of building and maintaining power. His "power formula" is closely and proudly followed by Guardian's Office members and all Scientologists who believe in what the cult calls "ethics." Hubbard says:
"When you move off a point of power, pay all your obligations on the nail, empower all your friends completely and move off with your pockets full of artillery, potential blackmail on every erstwhile rival, unlimited funds in your private account and the addresses of experienced assassins..."
In the same policy letter:
"So to live at all in the shadow or employ of a power you must yourself gather and USE enough power to hold your own - without just nattering to the power to "kill Pete", in straightforward or more suppressive veiled ways to him as these wreck the power that supports yours. He doesn't have to know all the bad news and if he's a power really he won't ask all the time, "What are all those dead bodies doing at the door? And if you are clever, you never let it be thought HE killed them - that weakens you and also hurts the power source. "Well, boss, about all those dead bodies, nobody at all will suppose you did lt. She over there, those pink legs sticking out, didn't like me." "Well," he'll say if he really is a power, "why are you bothering me with it if it's done and you did it. Where's my blue ink?" Or "Sklpper, three shore patrolmen will be along soon with your cook, Dober, and they'll want to tell you he beat up Simson." "Who's Simson?" "He's a clerk in the enemy office downtown." Good, when they've done it, take Dober down to the dispensary for any treatment he needs. Oh yes, Raise his pay....And lastly and most important, for we all aren't on the stage with our names in lights, always push power in the direction of anyone on whose power you depend. It may be more money for the power, or more ease, or a snarling defense of the power to a critic, or even the dull thud of one of his enemies in the dark, or the glorious blaze of the whole enemy camp as a birthday surprise"... - L. Ron Hubbard.
You be the judge. Does the above sound like religion -- or does it more nearly resemble testimony heard at the Nuremberg trials? But are Scientologists really using policy directives like this? Again, you be the judge.
The F.B.I. learned from documents obtained in its 1977 raid that a Los Angeles "church" official had written to his superior that a confidential source could obtain a worker's keys to doors to the room where the Attorney General's Office kept Scientology files. The senior official responded: "Methods have historically been comm'd (communicated) between BI (the intelligence bureau of Scientology) people directly. Seniors do not need to know this data generally."
It's right out of the "power policy" directive by Hubbard.
One of the cult's highest covert agents, Micheal Meisner (after he escaped from cult detention and turned himself in to authorities), was placed in protective custody because he and government officials feared for his life. Who would know the cult's tactics better than an old and established top level cult operative?
In Sutton Ontario, Scientologists conducted a mock funeral for the family of an outspoken critic, in his small hometown. Is that religious practice, or a fear tactic better suited to the Mafia?
During the two-million dollar suit against Scientology by Julie Titchbourne of Portland, Oregon, a juror was excused after four "anonymous" death threats: "If your findings are against the Scientology church you will be killed. A policeman was listening on the phone and heard the voice say, "I will get you, I will get you." But the police could not identify the caller.
Hubbard's policy directive titled "Suppressive Acts" lists acts which are considered to make one an enemy of Scientology and thus subject to the cult's "Fair Game" policy. These include: "testifying as a hostile witness against Scientology in public" and "proposing, advising, or voting for legislation, ordinances, rules, or laws directed toward the suppression of Scientology."
Exercise of free speech or the right of petition, or serving on a jury, makes one the target of policies such as:
"The defense of anything is untenable. The only way to defend anything is to attack."..."People who attack Scientology are criminals."..."Groups that attack us to say the least are not sane..." - February 18, 1966. "Only attacks resolve threats..." - August 15, 1960. "...Don't ever submit tamely to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on the attackers all the way."
A 1955 publication by Hubbard still sold in "church" bookstores states:
"the purpose of a lawsuit...is to harass and discourage rather than to win. We do not want Scientology to be reported in the press anywhere but in the religious pages of the newspaper. Therefore, we should be very alert to sue for slander at the slightest chance so as to discourage the public presses from mentioning Scientology."
Fourteen lawsuits were filed against journalist Paulette Cooper to tie up her money, time, and emotions.
HCO PL 17 February 1966 discusses harassment by "noisy investigation":
"The mechanism employed is very straight forward. We never use the data to threaten to expose. We simply collect it and expose it."
HCO PL 25 December 1965 summarizes the attitude which gives rise to these policies:
"A suppressive person becomes fair game. By fair game is meant may not be further protected by the codes and disciplines of Scientology...They cannot be granted the rights and beingness ordinarily accorded rational beings and so place themselves beyond any consideration for their feelings or well being."
The Nazis had to learn to perceive Jews as sub-human and not worthy of personal rights before they could imprison and exterminate them. Hubbard's contempt for human rights is enforced upon his followers:
"The homes, property, places, abodes of persons who have been active in attempting to suppress Scientology or Scientologists are all beyond any protection of Scientology ethics."
HCO PL 7 February 1965 dictates what cult members are to believe about themselves in relation to the world around them:
"Look how we ourselves are attacked by "public opinion" media yet there is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves."
Hubbard's policy letter "The Anti-Social Personality The Anti-Scientologist" again describes his own behavior, the role model for all cult members:
"The basic reason the antisocial personality behaves as he or she does lies in a hidden terror of others...The fixation is that survival itself depends on "keeping others down"...Such a person has no trust to a point of terror...When such a personality goes insane the world is full of Martians or the FBI and each person met is really a Martian or FBI agent."
In the 1950's Hubbard sent a letter to the F.B.I. that was released in 1977, claiming that Russians were trying to lure him to the Soviet Union to acquire his secrets in brainwashing. This was not the first such communication the Justice Department had received from Hubbard, nor would it be the last. Four years later the F.B.I. made a notation "appears mental" on one of his missives and ceased acknowledging them.
What kind of man is motivating thousands of cult members? To what extremes will his controlled followers go?
From HCO PL 11 May 1971:
"Exploding it" (black Propaganda) "to the public ideally is an effort to make the public a Vigilante committee...Threat and mystery are the lot and power of intelligence."
From another policy directive of 21 November 1972:
"Don't stay on the same subject being attacked on...You only challenge statements you can prove are false and in any conversation let the rest slide."
These last two points say a lot about cult strategy and make them more predictable. When they sue for libel, any relevant points not mentioned by the cult are probably true and the cult doesn't want them brought up because they could be proved wrong or guilty. Also, in their press releases and defensive PR actions, when they attack with broad generalities (yellow journalism sensationalism directed toward their "enemies), they are trying to misdirect the public's attention away from a vulnerability of their own. What they are hiding can be found.
The "dirty tricks" are carried out by loyal group members who have learned to "correctly understand" the justifications of their actions.
After I had had enough auditing to be considered safely captive, I was approached by the cult's chief covert operative director in Minneapolis, Bob Kuyper. I was asked to infiltrate the A.M.A. in Chicago and get their Scientology files. He didn't want to know how I would obtain the information. He just wanted the information. He also asked me to tail a local psychiatrist and gather all the incriminating evidence I could on the guy, as he was giving the "church" trouble. (I was unable to penetrate the A.M.A. in Chicago and did not have time to do an extensive intelligence gathering mission on the psychiatrist before I was called away from Minneapolis on business.)
As I look back at my willingness to become an agent of the cult and my pride and sense of honor that the cult would select me, I am not surprised. I was totally indoctrinated and mentally dominated by the values, goals, ethics, mind control techniques, and policies of the cult. I had read what Hubbard wrote about enemies of the cult -- many of the same things you are reading now. I believed that enemies of the cult were criminals, insane, had no rights, and had to be stopped no matter what. If we failed, all mankind might be lost. I never questioned. Laws of the land and the Constitution were insignificant compared to the greater safety and future of all mankind (which only the cult could provide). Hubbard had written:
"We're not playing some minor game in Scientology. It isn't cute or something to do for lack of something better m e whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology. This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the trap now, we may never again have another chance. Remember, this is our first chance to do so in all the endless trillions of years of the past'. Don't muff it now because it seems unpleasant or unsociable to do Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten. Do them and we'll win " - L. Ron Hubbard.
"Seven" means "hammering out of existence incorrect technology." "Eight" means "knocking out incorrect applications." "Nine" means "closing the door on any possibility of incorrect technology." "Ten" means "closing the door on incorrect application." Remember that "correct technology" means only the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. It is obvious that the rights of the A.M.A. and psychiatrists, and of any critics, will have to be sacrificed for the good of all. After 11 years in the cult, I believe this is the prevalent logic and attitude of indoctrinated cult members.
The cult's rationalization of such attitudes is based on a self-serving perversion of "ethics," which Hubbard defines as "the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics."
"Dynamics" is defined in the Scientology Technical Dictionary:
"DYNAMICS, there could be said to be eight urges (drives, impulses) in life. These we call dynamics. These are motives or motivations. We call them the eight dynamics. The first dynamic - is the urge toward existence as one's self...The second dynamic - is the urge toward existence as a sexual or bisexual activity... The third dynamic - is the urge toward existence as groups of individuals...The fourth dynamic - is the urge toward existence as mankind...The fifth dynamic - is the urge toward existence of the animal kingdom... The sixth dynamic - is the urge toward existence as the physical universe. The seventh dynamic - is the urge toward existence as or of spirits The eighth dynamic - is the urge toward existence as infinity. This is also identified as the Supreme Being."
Since all the dynamics would be harmed by anything which harms Scientology, it follows that it is "ethical" to do anything to stop anyone from harming Scientology. That is "ethics" in Scientology.
During my eleven years in the cult we were only too glad to help the Guardian's Office stop Scientology's enemies. lt was a highest honor to be in the intelligence corp (Guardian's Office, now renamed Office of Special Affairs) or to be a helper or agent of the Guardian's Office.
Years later I ran into Bob Kuyper (the chief cult operative for Minneapolis) in Los Angeles, where he told me the "church's" attitude is that it is at war. He told me that the "Bible" for cult policy in this war is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. That book, he told me, is secretly used in the training of Guardian's Office agents and personnel, and is never to be carried openly or discussed with new cult members. He told me where to get the book (Pickwick Book Store on Hollywood Blvd in LA) and how to order the book and not arouse suspicion. I bought the book and read it. It is mandatory that anyone involved in a conflict with Scientology buy and study that book. It is, as Kuyper said, their "Bible" of strategy against enemies. Almost all of the tactics and policies mentioned in this affidavit are explained in "The Art of War."
This book makes cult tactics understandable and predictable, and breaks the mystery which they cultivate so carefully. The fear they seek to inspire (through an appearnace of being invisible and everywhere) becomes almost laughable when you know their policies, tactics and strategies, and can predict what they will do to you. You can prepare counter-measures to protect your family and associates. You can inform the authorities of the types of frame-ups and harassment that may be used against you. Remember Hubbard's words in HCO PL 11 May 1971:
"Threat and mystery are the lot and power of intelligence."
I would not have known of this book if it hadn't been for Bob Kuyper.
Hubbard draws on this book in policy directives. From HCO PL 21 November 1972:
"The technique of proving utterances false is called "DEAD AGENTING." It's in the first book of the Chinese espionage. When the enemy agent gives false data, those who believed him but now find it false kill him - or at least cease to believe him."
In HCO PL 13 August 1970,
"Sun Tzu in his book about warfare gives several types of agent. One of these is they Dead Agent. Because he tells lies to the enemy and when they find out they will kill him."
(As a side point, the Sun Tzu book is apparently used by the Chinese and Russians in developing their military strategy. I hope our military has a copy and have read it.)
In a broad public release policy, Hubbard tells his low-level followers how to handle Black PR. This public policy directly contradicts his confidential instructions to high-level operatives, as revealed in documents seized by the F.B.I.
The public policy, from HCO PL 21 November 1972, is:
1. Fill the vacuum of omitted data with factual data.
2. Prove all false utterances heard are lies.
3. Discredit every rumor encountered.
4. Handle the interest level with any utterance.
5. Carefully study out the scene until the exact source is
located.
6. Use the knowledge of source to impede or destroy the
source of Black Propaganda by
non-criminal means.
7. Continue to fill the vacuum of no data with good data
using any channels available."
When the F.B.I. raided the cult's headquarters in Los Angeles, they found a gun and knockout drops.
What is a religion doing with those things in its intelligence section? Why does a religion Mace-equip its security guards around the clock? The cult, when attacked, is the first to cry "religious persecution." It claims to be protecting the Constitution, the First Amendment, and the Bill of Rights. But how does it actually treat personal privacy and the right of free speech when someone is critical of them? What religion uses fear and intimidation more suited to the Nazis or the Mafia to silence its critics?
In another 10 page "church" directive seized by the F.B.I., it was revealed that a point system was developed to reward cult members involved in covert intelligence gathering. "Files obtained or documents obtained covertly or clandestinely including ripped off Scn (Scientology) materials are worth 2 points per document," - according to the seized directive. "If an enemy of Scientology becomes unable or unwilling to attack further, 100 points would be given to the responsible section of the intelligence bureau." If an agent's cover was blown and he or she was traced back to the "church," the agent would lose 50 points. From my personal knowledge and observation while a staff member, the Guardian's Office did use a point system. The rewards were points, time off, pay bonuses, and auditing awards worth many thousands of dollars.
Hubbard's policy directives are terrifying. As the cult's crimes are exposed and the group's leaders become increasingly desperate, there will be real danger of a Jonestown-type denouement, as the pressure of public exposure and congressional investigation triggered the Jonestown deaths. Whether Scientology becomes another Jonestown depends upon the courage of those who know what's going on to speak up in time, start legal measures in time, and investigate the activities of this cult in a fully legal manner which respects their rights but also resolves the question of the cult's purpose and activities, and applies due legal restraint where proven necessary.
If the cult has nothing to hide, why would it object to qualified public evaluation of the secret mental practices it claims to be so powerful and beneficial? Why would it object to disclosure of the finances, codes, internal policies and activities regarding adversaries for which any other public corporation is accountable? - - if it is a religion and not violating the law. It's time to clear the air. After all, why should a religion fear if it is operating in humanitarian ways?
After being a loyal and totally brainwashed cult member for 11 years, I can shed some light from my observations and understanding of cult policy and pressures on how Scientology will operate in court. They will defend themselves with basically three types of witnesses.
If you took the common elements of all religious philosophies and a little common sense, and wrote it up, the result would sound something like the ten commandments and most people would agree these are good living principles and are humanitarian. That is what I call "Level 1" Scientology. This is how Scientology looks like a religion. This derivative amalgam is about as effective as any other common sense Jewish, Christian, or Buddhist philosophy and has about the same level of workability. It offers the same social bonhomie and companionship as any church. A Level 1 Scientologists will sound like any Jew, Christian, or Buddhist who is satisfied with his religion.
The "Level 1 Scientologist" has only been exposed to this general "everybody can agree to" philosophy -- not the confidential policy directives. He or she is naive about what's really going on. He will give glowing testimonials with true sincerity because he is sincere. For him, Scientology has bettered his life. He has applied common sense and a bit of self controlled structure to his life.
The next type of witness Scientology uses is the duped ally. These people may be non-Scientologists, perhaps religious leaders from another demonination, or Scientologists who posess professional qualifications. The duped ally will have been shown all the Level 1 Scientology materials, the religious image everybody can agree to. The cult uses the ally's bona fides to aid their case and gain respectability by association. The ally is duped because he is never shown the confidential auditing material or discreditable policies and tactics used on enemies. Clerics and professionals have been similarly used in the past; many were duped by the Nazis until they found out what was really going on.
While I was on staff, the Guardian's Office went through great efforts to involve other religions in Level 1 projects, to create a religious image to protect the cult's tax-free status. I remember a time when an order came down from the Guardian's Office to have all auditors wear minister's garb -- because the center was expecting a visit from the I.R.S. For about a week all the auditors wore minister's collars. Another time the Guardian's Office did surveys on the average public to find out what they felt a traditional religion or church should look like, and another to learn what the public thinks a cult looks like. The results were used to fine-tune the "church's" image. The cult will go to absolutely any length to project a religious image and protect its tax-free status.
The same use is made of duped civil libertarians who are sincerely interested in protecting the Constitution. The cult uses them to make any attack on the cult's activities seem like the whole Constitution is going down the drain. Unfortunately, few civil libertarians know what goes on in the confidential and secret areas of the cult.
The Guardian's Office has a list of Scientologists who are doctors, psychiatrists, police, dentists, psychologists, social workers, professors, etc, who can be used as "unbiased" and "objective" "expert" witnesses when they are needed. "Experts" in a cult court case will be flown in from another area of the country so they are not recognized locally. They are briefed by the Guardian's Office on what needs to be said, what needs to be defended, what and who attacked. Their professional credibility lends "expert" credibility to the cult's court position.
The last category of witnesses are upper level, covert cult agents who will swear to anything the cult tells them to, to incriminate or discredit any hostile anti-Scientology witnesses. Sometimes these agents say they are Scientologists. Sometimes they come in from other areas of the country to testily and deny they are Scientologists.
All three categories of witnesses can be counted on to lie of they are Scientologists. They will lie if they know it could effect the "church" adversely, even if it means personal danger and hardship to themselves. Here is the logic behind lying on the witness stand:
l) When choosing between telling the truth or telling a lie, they will do whichever doesn't harm Scientology because in their mind Scientology is the only salvation for mankind. Scientology must not be stopped. Individuals are expendable. It would be wrong (by Scientology standards) to do anything that harms the greater number of dynamics (defined earlier). Anything .which harms Scientology automatically harms the greater number of dynamics. Harming Scientology equals harming the greatest number of dynamics.
"The whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology. This is a deadly serious activity...we may never again have another chance..." - L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 7 Feb. 1965.
Cult members get so pumped up on the idea that their soul, spiritual freedom, and the souls and spiritual freedom of everyone for all eternity is at stake if they don't protect Scientology, they will do anything -- especially not look at the truth. At one time I was brainwashed this way myself.
2) Scientologists will lie to avoid committing "High Crimes (Suppressive Acts)." Persons accused of doing these things are "enemies" who may be declared fair game and denied access to auditing materials on the confidential levels -- the person's only hope for spiritaul freedom, ever. High crimes and suppressive acts are defined by Hubbard as follows.
"HIGH CRIMES (SUPPRESSIVE ACTS) - - - "A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts. SUPPRESSIVE ACTS are acts calculated to impede or destroy Scientology or a Scientologists and which are listed at length below...Suppressive Acts are defined as actions or omissions undertaken to knowingly suppress, reduce or impede Scientology or Scientologists. Cancellation of Certificates, Classifications and Awards and assignment of a Condition of ENEMY are amongst the penalties which can be leveled for this type of offense as well as those recommended by Committees of Evidence.
A. ATTACKS ON SCIENTOLOGY AND SCIENTOLOGISTS
1. Proposing, advising or voting for legislation or ordinances, rules or laws directed towards the suppression of Scientology.
2. Testifying hostilely before state of public inquiries into Scientology to suppress it.
3. Public statements against Scientology or Scientologists but not to Committees of Evidence duly convened.
4. Reporting or threatening to report Scientology o- Scientologists to civil authorities in an effort to suppress Scientology or Scientologists from practicing or receiving standard Scientology.
5. Bringing civil suit against any Scientology Organization or Scientologist including the non-payment of bills or failure to refund without first calling the matter to the attention of the Chairman at World Wide and receiving a reply.
6. Writing anti-Scientology letters to the press or giving anti-Scientology or anti-Scientologist evidence to the press.
7. Testifying as a hostile witness against Scientology in public.
8. Being at the hire of anti-Scientology groups or persons....
11. Receiving money, favors or encouragement to suppress Scientology or Scientologists.
13. Theft or espionage for another group or government.
14. Pronouncing Scientologists guilty of the practice of standard ScientoIogy...
16. Delivering up the person of a Scientologist without defense or protest to the demands of civil or criminal law...
B. DISAVOWAL, SPLINTERING, DIVERGENCE
1. Public disavowal of Scientology or Scientologists in good standing with Scientology Organizations...
6. Continued adherence to a group pronounced a Suppressive group by the Hubbard Communications Office.
7. Aiding or abetting a person demonstrably guilty of Suppressive Acts in such acts.
8. Dependency on other mental or philosophic procedures than Scientology (except medical or surgical) after certification, classification, or award."
No Scientologist who was a good cult member would ever say or do anything in court which was a "Suppressive Act." He would be too terrified of spiritual punishment and possible physical punishment through being labeled "Fair Game." He believes he has far more to lose than the legal penalties of perjury. Because of the nature of this cult, any testimony from cult members must be fully understood and qualified in this light. For example, a Mr. Wolfe (a Scientologist and covert agent) lied to a Grand Jury and was charged with making false statements to the Grand Jury. He stated that he did not know Micheal Meisner by that name despite the fact that Micheal Meisner was his covert operations senior in the cult who he had been working with personally for some time. Anyone involved in litigation with this cult must set up safeguards to ensure objective verification of any testimony by Scientologists.
When I was a thoroughly indoctrinated cult staff member, I thought L. Ron Hubbard could do no wrong and was the most humanitarian being who ever lived. He has a whole corp of personal representatives and PR people who make sure the myth and image of LRH and his wife go untarnished. One cult center holder in Burbank was stripped of a group of missions he had built over years because he spoke critically of Hubbard's wife.
There are "unofficial" stories circulated about Hubbard's
mystical and God-like abilities. One cult member told me that
while Hubbard was "researching" the upper confidential
levels, the whole Apollo ship (some 300 feet long) completely
disappeared for several minutes. There are many stories of Hubbard
leaving his body and visiting people and discovering lost hidden
treasure. The fear tactics discussed in these pages, plus such
manufactured lore, preserve the mystique of an infallible "Superman"
-- part of the systematic deception designed to conceal the enormously
profitable criminal activity of this organization.
MORE ON HUBBARD PERSONALLY
"The world before Dianetics never knew a precision mental science...Researchers in this field were not fully trained in mathematics or scientific methods or logic..." - L. Ron Hubbard, 22 May 1969
A transcript of Hubbard's brief education at George Washington University shows that he did enroll in 1930. He failed calculus and beginning German, got "D" grades, and ended his freshman year on probation. In his sophomore year he failed physics and dropped out at the end of the year.
With typical regard for truth, Scientology's official biography of Hubbard claims that he graduated in mathematics and engineering from George Washington University's Columbia College. When a "church" official was cornered on the discrepancy his answer was, "The Church does not stand or fall on Hubbard's academic record."
Hubbard claimed that he did not receive money from the "church," that he wasn't getting rich. But the "church" provides about 70 personnel to cook, clean, maintain his house and wardrobe, act as messengers and as his personal public relations corp. I was told by one of his personal photographers that he buys the finest handmade clothes, gourmet foods, has the finest and most expensive motorcycles, instruments, and has over 100 cameras -- all the best that money can buy. To hire such a staff would cost about $14,000 per week.
Hubbard's policies require that students purchase their own materials (i.e., Hubbard's books) and that Scientology organizations actively promote public sales of the Dianetics book. In each "church" or mission one or two people work full time doing nothing but selling books and building Hubbard's royalties at no cost to him. Assuming several hundred Scientology organizations worldwide, that's 2-300 sales people collecting money for Hubbard at no cost to him. In 1979 Hubbard ordered that the cost of these books be raised 10% each month and the captive outlets, controlled by Hubbard, complied.
How much money is Scientology making? The Florida "church" took in 2.3 million dollars in one week while I was there -- just at that one location. One of Scientology's top salesmen (Fred Swartz) told me that because of the "church's" tax-free status, almost everything it takes in is profit. Any other business would have to gross billions of dollars to produce the kind of annual profit that Scientology tucks away.
Documents seized by the F.B.I. include a dispatch Mrs. Hubbard sent to key cult personnel ordering that they "use any method at our disposal to win the battle and gain our non profit tax status." From earlier examples you have some idea what "any method" could mean.
"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars the best way would be to start his own religion..." - Hubbard at a New Jersey science fiction writers meeting
Hubbard's personal public relations corp gets "Keys to Cities" in honor of L. Ron Hubbard through the cult's "social reform" front groups. There will be a lot of red-faced city councilmen and mayors when they find out about Hubbard, Scientology, and his tactics. These "honors" are used in cult PR to claim legitimacy for Hubbard, his "religion," and his "humanitarian" goals.
Hubbard has been married three times. L. Ron Hubbard Junior (Hubbard's son and once an avid cult member) now has nothing to do with the cult or his father. While I was on staff I heard about secret projects to reconcile Hubbard's previous wife and estranged son for public relations reasons.
Last March, Hubbard was convicted in France, in absentia, on charges of fraudulent medical practice. He was given a $7,000 fine but did not even appear to defend himself.
Hubbard says he no longer controls the "church." This is also asserted by cult officials. But after 11 years in Scientology, my observation is that Hubbard totally controls the "church". Saying Hubbard doesn't control Scientology is like saying the Ayatollah Khomeini doesn't control Iran. He issued almost all recent directives on his plans for "church" expansion.
In fact, Hubbard is personally responsible (though not accountable) for the actions of the Scientology cult. His absolute control is demonstrated by the fact that he alone is exempt from the accountability which his own policy demands of "church" executives.
HCO PL 29 October 1971 states:
"...`responsibility'...means the state, quality or fact of being responsible, and responsible means legally or ethically accountable...Involving personal accountability or ability to act without guidance or superior authority...capable of making moral or rational decisions on one's own and therefore answerable for one's behavior...an executive DOES NOT WAIT FOR ORDERS TO ACT. He is the one who, guided by policy, acts on his own initiative to handle and supervise his area and others and does not himself require supervision."
Hubbard makes every executive in his cult study this. He holds every executive responsible and accountable for all the people, property, and actions in their area and under their authority. He is fanatical about affixing responsibility. In a Scientology organization if your name is on it or over it (from my 11 years experience) you are held totally responsible for it.
In telling contrast, Hubbard makes major mistakes but no one in the cult ever admits them or makes waves for the demigod. One of his latest and greatest discoveries was that people could go "clear" on Dianetics or in ways other than the "clearing course." He even discovered that people could be "naturally clear" without ever having been in Scientology. Now suddenly the number of "clears" in Scientology went from 6,000 to over 25,000 in just a few months. (Certainly it is mere coincidence that "clear" cult members can be sold a wide variety of lucrative services not available to pre-clears. Someone had a good sense of where the money is.)
In the years before Hubbard's new "discovery," these new "clears" had bought hundreds of thousands of dollars in auditing which now Hubbard says they didn't need. Worse yet, Hubbard now claims that the auditing they received was dangerous. Hubbard's top personally trained technical spokesman David Mayo wrote: "New Era Dianetics cannot be run on clears or above without serious consequences to the body." These people must now be "pushed up fast" and sold additional auditing through OT 3 because they are "at risk."
No refunds were given. There was no public admission by cult members that Hubbard really blew it. I guess they will just have to buy more auditing and keep their mouths shut or they will never be allowed to pay for and receive the only cure that exists. Then they'll really be in trouble.
But did Hubbard really blow it? Or did he (and David Mayo) just invent an extraordinarily lucrative way to double-dip rip off already-trapped cult members?
Hubbard is in control and he is making enormous profits. The stories that he no longer actively manages the cult, is not a member of the cult's board of directors, are his fraudulent efforts to shield himself legally and financially from any responsibility for orders he issued and procedures he designed. Every legal action brought against the cult should name L. Ron Hubbard and his wife Mary Sue as parties
But perhaps Hubbard is infallible after all. Look at the "Catch 22" policy he set up for anyone who complains that their auditing didn't work.
"To claim a pc lost time in auditing because of an error
in choosing processes or having to reflatten one, is highly fallacious.
Sometimes a pc throws us a curve with a rough case, bad between
session behavior, roughing up auditors... It is natural that goofs
occur on such cases. We are selling hours of auditing and what
that is is for us to judge. We are selling actual salvage from
Death itself. Rebate. How silly. The person was lucky we were
around at all and took an interest. We don't have to do anything
for anybody. Remember that. We can lose interest in certain people,
too you know."
- L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 23 May 1965
Yes, just because a cult member pays thousands and thousands of dollars to the cult for auditing does not mean he has any right to demand that he gets what he was told would occur!
Hubbard has more "Catch 22" systems for explaining why any failure is always the victim's fault. These rationalizations give loyal cult members justification for their participation, despite failure. This helps them "keep the faith" and continue their non-questioning of the founder's policies.
Hubbard's evasion of personal accountability finds classic expression in policy directive HCO PL 7 May 1969, "Policies on Sources of Trouble." This catchall list can rationalize almost any failure. Who among us could not be forced into one of these categories, if there were sufficient motive to do so?
"(a) Persons intimately connected with persons (such as marital or familial-ties) of known antagonism to mental or spiritual treatment or Scientology. In practice such persons, even when they approach Scientology in a friendly fashion, have such pressure continually brought to bear upon them by persons with undue influence over them that they make very poor gains in processing and their interest is solely devoted to proving the antagonistic element wrong.
They, by experience, produce a great deal of trouble in the long run as their own condition does not improve adequately under such stresses to effectively combat the antagonism. Their present time problem cannot be reached as it is continuous, and so long as it remains so, they should not be accepted for auditing by any church or auditor.
(b) Criminals with proven criminal records often continue to commit so many undetected harmful acts between sessions that they do not make adequate case gains and therefore should not be accepted for processing by churches or auditors.
(c) Persons who have ever threatened to sue or embarrass or attach or who have publicly attacked Scientology or been a party to an attack and all their immediate families should never be accepted for processing by a Central Organization or auditor. They have a history of only serving other ends than case gain and commonly again turn on the church or auditor. They have already barred themselves out by their own overts against Scientology and are thereafter too difficult to help, since they cannot openly accept help from those they have tried to injure.
(d) Responsible-for-condition cases have been traced back to other causes for their condition too often to be acceptable. By Responsible-for-condition cases is meant the person who insists a book or some auditor is "wholly responsible for the terrible condition I am in". Such cases demand unusual favors, free auditing, tremendous effort on the part of auditors. Review of these cases show that they were in the same or worse condition long before auditing, that they are using a planned campaign to obtain auditing for nothing, that they are not as bad off as they claim, and that their antagonism extends to anyone who seeks to help them, even their own families. Establish the rights of the matter and decide accordingly.
(e) Persons who are not being audited on their own determinism are a liability as they are forced into being processed by some other person and have no personal desire to become better. Quite on the contrary they usually want only to prove the person who wants them audited wrong, and so do not get better. Until a personally determined goal to be processed occurs, the person will not benefit.
(f) Persons who "want to be processed to see if Scientology works" as their only reason for being audited have never been known to make gains as they do not participate. News reporters fall into this category. They should not be audited.
(g) Persons who claim that "if you help such and such a case" (at great and your expense) because somebody is rich and influential or the neighbours would be electrified should be ignored. Processing is designed for bettering individuals, not progressing by stunts or giving cases undue importance...
(h) Persons who "have an open mind" but no personal hopes or desires for auditing of knowingness should be ignored, as they really don't have an open mind at all, but a lack of ability to decide about things and are seldom found to be very responsible and waste anyone's efforts "to convince them".
(i) Persons who do not believe anything or anyone can get better. They have a purpose for being audited entirely contrary to the auditor's and so in this conflict, do not benefit. When such persons are trained they use their training to degrade others. Thus they should not be accepted for training or auditing.
(j) Persons attempting to sit in judgment of Scientology in hearings or attempting to investigate Scientology should be given no undue importance. One should not seek to instruct or assist them in any way. This includes judges, boards, newspaper reporters, magazine writers, etc...
To summarize troublesome persons, the policy in general is to cut communication as the longer it is extended the more trouble they are. I know of no case where they types of persons listed above were handled by auditing or instruction. I know of many cases where they were handled by firm legal stands, by ignoring them until they change their minds, or just turning one's back..."
In other words, people who have their own viewpoints, are outspoken and in control of their minds are not allowed -- which leaves a very easily controlled group at Hubbard's disposal. It's nice to have "logical" reasons to explain away your failures, keep the crew happy, and the money flowing in.
In Hubbard's book "The Creation of Human Ability" he mentions a technique to exteriorize the spirit from the body, called "R2-45," which calls for using a 45 caliber pistol to end the life of the individual. "Church" spokesmen defending Hubbard's remark call it a joke. But this "joke" may have a different meaning to insiders who know firsthand the ruthlessness of cult fanatics. Might this discourage internal dissent?
Hubbard's cowardice (evasion of accountability) is another aspect of the bully (R2-45). Both of these things fit the image of a terrified person responding with viciousness. Hubbard's writings often describe himself, perhaps inadvertently, in the manner of a criminal secretly hoping to be caught. A particularly revealing example is found in Hubbard's policy describing attributes of the "anti-social personality":
"...to them all society is a large hostile generality....The antisocial personality habitually selects the wrong target.... Such a person has no trust to a point of terror....When such a personality goes insane the world is full of Martians or the FBI and each person met is really a Martian or FBI agent."
Church spokesmen claim that Hubbard is living in an undisclosed location under an assumed name with tight security precautions. He must be worried. In the past, Hubbard claims to have been the target of mysterious attacks (by Martians?), three of which occurred while he slept. One allegedly occurred in February 1951 in his apartment on North Rossmore Street in LA.
"About two or three o'clock in the morning the apartment was entered. I was knocked out, had a needle thrust into my heart to give it a jet of air to produce a coronary thrombosis and I was given an electric shock with a 110 volt current. This is all very blurred to me. I had no witnesses."
Hubbard once offered his services (by mail, never acknowledged) to President Kennedy to use Dianetics on astronauts in the space agency. Was Hubbard afraid President Kennedy would harm him while talking with him? From his January 1963 letter to a government agency:
"However, if President Kennedy did grant me an audience
to discuss this matter...I
would have to have some guarantee of safety of person."
"The reactions of individuals or groups to criticism varies
from general acceptance or amused tolerance at one end of the
scale to a sense of outrage and vindictive counterattack on the
other....Perhaps unfortunately, especially for its adherents,
Scientology falls at the hypersensitive end of the scale.... Judging
from the documents this would seem to have its origin in a personality
trait of Hubbard whose attitude to critics is one of extreme hostility....It
could be said that anyone whose attitude is such as Mr. Hubbard
displays in his writings cannot be too surprised if the world
treats him with suspicion rather than affection."
- Sir John Foster, author of a British inquiry into Scientology
Sir John knew only a tiny fraction of what is in this document
and none of what has been discovered about the cult in recent
raids by the F.B.I. I think his comment is benevolent in light
of the new discoveries about Hubbard and his cult.
HUBBARD AND HIS STAFF
In one of his policy directives, Hubbard talks about what motivates
people. He refers to a motivation scale from the book, "A
Spy and His Masters": duty,
personal conviction,
personal gain,
money.
For two years I experienced Hubbard use of these ideas as a staff member at "Celebrity Center" in Los Angeles. Great efforts were made to recruit new staff to work 60-70 hour weeks for $15/wk plus room and board. The motivation had to be something besides money, but money was usually the first and easiest-to-understand approach. New recruits would save money by getting $300/hr Scientology services free. I know of cult members who received more than $100,000 worth of these untaxed labor exchanges. (The I.R.S. should check into this, because staff receive invoiced services in exchange for labor. Staff are contractually liable for the invoiced value of the services. Yet the cult pays no withholding or social security.)
We tried hard to convice recruits it was their spiritual duty to join staff and help Scientology save a world that could go at any moment. Hubbard makes full use of the old corporate ploy, explained in "A Spy and His Masters": "give them status and a title instead of money." The cult heaps titles and the highest reverence upon members who sign their souls away for a billion years on Hubbard's cheap labor farm. Cult literature promotes the status and romantic attraction of being one of the chosen few. "Theirs are the feats that legends are made of" is a favorite promotional slogan of the Guardian's Office. "Many are called, few are chosen" is another favorite. A recruiting promotion called "Creating a Safe and Sane Planet" boasts:
"We are nevertheless in the upper 1/10 of the upper 1/10 in intelligence...We are not idly fighting an enemy just to have a fight. We are actually fighting the evil basic point of the society which was destroying it... In all the broad universe there is no other hope for man than ourselves."
Potential recruits and old staff members are constantly bombarded with this egocentric fanaticism.
While Hubbard lived like a king with personal servants, custom clothes, and approximately 100 cameras (to name but a few of his luxuries), the average staff member lived with constant harassment and grossly substandard, over-crowded housing, and poor food. In Celebrity Center's old housing we often had trouble with building inspectors about housing violations.
Frequent purges are a fact of staff life. I remember one purge to get rid of anyone who had taken LSD. Another time it was anyone who had had electric shock or psychotherapy. There were missions by higher cult centers to purge the SP's from staff and "put a head on a pike" as an example. It seemed like there was always a witch hunt for someone. One time it was for people with supposed "evil intentions" as manifested by a specific reaction on the "E-Meter" called a "Rock Slam." If you were found to be a "witch," you might be sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) to get rehabilitated and turned into a decent being (i.e., slave labor). There was a constant push to work harder, faster, and get the money now because the world was crumbling and only "we" could save it by fast work.
If you became disillusioned with harassment, low pay, and poor food and housing, and wanted to leave, you would be targetted for the "big scare" and the "big surprise." The big scare is that if you violate your billion-year contract you will be declared an SP, in treason to the cult, and an "enemy." This means you will be barred from the cult's upper levels which are promoted as your only chance in all eternity for spiritual freedom. The big surprise is that you must now pay cash for all those "free" services you signed binding invoices for.
The intimidation and pressure are enormous. Faced with loss of spiritual freedom for all eternity plus demands for huge amounts of money they have no way of earning, most people just shut up and go back to work. If you do manage to leave the cult, they are damn serious about collecting the money you owe them after working "free" for them for years. I know of one couple so intimidated they are struggling to find a way to pay off over $100,000 in "free" services they received as staff members.
Cult PR brags about the highly trained and responsible staff who deliver 100% standard LRH tech in Scientology organizations. What I saw, again and again, was the "highly trained experts" of today (who may have been put on post yesterday to sink or swim) become tomorrow's SP's, despised, demoted and transfered. Constant purges maintain the undertainty and fear which motivate and control staff. If some combination of people manage to bring in money, they will survive longer than most -- but then the wheel will turn again. The turnover of personnel in Scientology organizations is unbelievable. It's hard to find the same "highly trained experts" on the same post from one day to the next. Because of the tremendous turnover, the cult needs a constant flow of idealistic new faces to man its "free" labor ranks.
Any stability of position, any respect (except for Hubbard and his wife), are illusions in the roller coaster of staff life. Hubbard has it worked out nicely. He has power, control, and use of the cult's assets. Staff members have moral self-righteousness, status, admiration, and lots of titles.
What is the great work for which staff members endure such conditions?
I remember one time Hubbard, in one of his egocentric pipe dreams,
decided to conquer the music industry and teach the world about
real music. He formed a "research project" involving
more than fifty staff members who, for months, did nothing but
play music under Hubbard's incompetent direction. Finally they
went to a studio and put together an album. The cult put together
a massive advertising and distribution campaign, involving yet
more personnel, for this culmination of LRH's "researches"
into the subject of music. The album, titled "The Power of
Source," came out and was a highly conspicious flop. Even
many cult members couldn't stand it, but no one dared openly criticize
it. Did Hubbard pay for his expensive play-acting? No, the cult
did. I don't know how many more instances may be found of cult
money spent for Hubbard's nonsensical "research."
[ Similar boondoggles are known concerning Hubbard's "careers"
as "photographer" and as "filmmaker," both
of which involved large amounts of cult money and staff labor.
Perhaps most costly of all were Hubbard's "James Bond / cloak-and-dagger"
delusions. -Ed ]
In another policy directive, Hubbard observes that one doesn't have to own something to control it. One need only have use of it. That's nothing new: just set up a trust or corporation which you dominate and spend its money according to your own desires.
Hubbard's perks and the "research expense accounts" which he takes from the cult must be enormous. These are why staff members must work long hours for little or no pay. When the money starts to run low, Hubbars's real genius lies in finding new ways to extort yet more money from the same group of captive minds. The pressures and abuse already described eventually drive people away. Who but Hubbard could get those same people to come back and bleed some more, and be grateful to be allowed to be victimized again? From policy directive LRH ED 307 Int. "The Amnesty":
"Some years ago all ethics handlings were turned over to orgs for their own determinism. Approval of such handling was no longer required of an International Justice Chief. This did not work out. Heavy and often unjust actions were taken locally which disrupted orgs. To handle this LRH 305 R and 305-1 were issued. These granted an amnesty to anyone who was ever in an org or in Scientology. There has been a huge response from all over the world on this and ex-staff and many public have gotten back on lines."
Old staff members who had left and broken their "contracts"
were called and told that if they come back to work on staff immediately
they will not be charged for the "free" services they
had to pay for after leaving the cult. Hubbard manages to avoid
accountability even here. The "errors" he admits to
were those of (lower-level) "orgs," not Hubbard's centralized
top management ("International Justice Chief"). Once
again the fault lies with the victim, not with Hubbard.
Lose if you stay, lose if you go, lose if you leave and then come
back.
THE central fact of staff life is threat. That is how staff are controlled and kept from questioining Hubbard's directives. I have already mentioned purges and