Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (72 page)

While Hubbard was alive, he was more than a president; he
was an absolute dictator, controlling Scientology through the Sea Org and the
Guardian’s Office, using each to check the other. He found that he could direct
his organizations to undertake even immoral and criminal acts by claiming them
to be the “greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics.” Hubbard was also
the sole legislator, creating the law for Scientologists. There was no
Congress, no democratic body, no independent justice system, no single Church
official with real power.

Since Hubbard’s death, control seems to have passed to David
Miscavige,
¹⁷
who directs the Church through the Sea Org. Since its
inception in 1967, the Sea Org has been organized as a Para-military unit. It
concentrates on the expansion of Scientology through the strict application of
orders from the executive. Sea Org members sign a Code of conduct which begins,
“I promise to uphold, forward and carry out Command Intention.” The Sea Org has
largely been involved in the creation and maintenance of Scientology Orgs,
providing Scientology training and counseling.

The Sea Org manages the Orgs, and, more loosely, the
Missions. The Orgs and Missions have no hand in management, and are
ill-informed of its activities.

Until it passed into the hands of the Commodore’s
Messengers, the Guardian's Office was the most powerful organization in
Scientology. The GO contained the Legal, Financial, Public Relations and
Intelligence (or, euphemistically, “Information”) departments, as well as the
“Social Coordination Bureau.” By 1983, the GO Bureaus had been separated from
one another, and absorbed along with the Sea Org under the Messengers’ control.

The Public Relations Bureau exists to combat bad press, and
emphasize successes. It simply does not report any of the many failures to
public Scientologists. If a court case is lost, or a government closes Orgs
down, Scientologists will generally hear of it only if the media reports it.
Moreover, Scientologists are discouraged from reading newspapers. When an event
has to be commented on, the PR Bureau follows the time-honored practice of
“plausible denial” favored by so many politicians. Free nations have the
advantage of a free press, this is not so in the Scientology community. Only
during the periods of extensive splintering (in the early 1950s, the mid-1960s
and the 1980s) has there been anything like an independent press trying to
inform Scientologists of the inadequacies and the crimes of the Scientology
Church. So Scientologists outside the PR Bureau have a very incomplete picture.

When PR fails, the Legal Bureau takes over, at least in
theory. Its mission is to block any criticism of Scientology. Governments too
seek to stifle opposition, and leaks of discreditable information. This is particularly
obvious in the totalitarian Communist countries, but even Western Europe and
the US are not free from such practices. Ex-CIA agent Victor Marchetti’s
supposed Constitutional right to free speech was withdrawn by the Supreme
Court, when he was prohibited from making any statements about the CIA without
their approval. When it happened this was a novel and a unique situation for
the USA. In Britain, it is illegal for any government employee to reveal
information gained during his employment, under the draconian Official Secrets
Act. The clumsy efforts to prevent the publication of Peter Wright’s
Spycatcher
show the lengths to which a Western government will go to stifle criticism.
Scientology too uses the courts in an attempt to silence opposition.

Where the Legal Bureau fails, it is time for Intelligence,
with its branches of covert and overt data collection. This was Hubbard’s personal
CIA, and details of its modus operandi came as a shock not only to public
Scientologists, Org staffs and Sea Org members, but even to many Guardian’s
Office staff. As with an Intelligence Agency, information is only distributed
on a need to know basis. Intelligence Agencies too perform immoral acts
justified as being for the “greatest good for the greatest number.”

By keeping the compartments of Scientology separate, Hubbard
ensured that no-one would have a complete and true picture. An individual can
only act on the information he has, the combination of his experience and his
belief. The PR Bureau censors and distorts information, and feels justified in
doing so on the grounds that passing on bad news is a characteristic of the
Suppressive. So Scientologists generally have little accurate information.
Whatever their feelings about the Organization, Scientologists are convinced
they have experienced psychological and spiritual benefits, and feel more
secure than they did before joining Scientology. Scientologists are also convinced
that they belong to the only group which can save Mankind.

1.
   
“Wards B & G”, Royal Courts of
Justice, High Court, London, 23 July 1984.

2.
   
Winter,
A Doctor’s Report on
Dianetics
.

3.
   
Hubbard,
Scientology 88008
.

4.
   
Hubbard,
Scientology 0-8
.

5.
   
Hubbard, Creation of Human Ability,
process R2-47 “Separateness”.

6.
   
Hubbard, Axioms of Scientology,
Scientology
08
.

7.
   
HCOB “Confidential - Resistive
Cases, Former Therapy”, 23 September 1968.

8.
   
The quotation is from Hubbard,
Scientology
88008
, p.135. According to Hubbard, one should assess the potential
survival value of any action across the “8 dynamics”, and act in a way which
enhances the majority of dynamics. Consequently, it is possible to the benefit
of the first seven dynamics, thus denying the eighth - the Supreme Being. This
fundamental principle of Scientology is untenable to all religions that believe
in a Supreme Being. See Hubbard Volunteer Minister’s Handbook for the 8 dynamics.

9.
   
HCOPL “Exchange”, 3 December 1971.

10.
 
HCOPL “The Dissemination Drill”, 23
October 1965.

11.
 
Hubbard,
What is Scientology?
,
pp.190-1.

12.
 
HCOB & HCOPL “Verbal Tech:
Penalties”, 15 February 1979, Technical Bulletins, vol.12, p.318.

13.
 
Hubbard,
Science of Survival
.

14.
 
HCOPL “Field Auditors Become
Staff”, 9 May 1965.

15.
 
e.g. the Registrar Salesmanship
Course, based upon Les Dane’s Big League Sales Closing Techniques, which openly
advocates lying to make sales. The drills on the course include using a hidden
microphone to tape record interviews. Sales staff use the Hard Sell Reference
Pack and do role play drills virtually every day.

16.
 
Let alone anyone capable of
demonstrating “OT powers”. Two Scientologists were tested at the Stanford
Research Institute (which is not connected with Stanford University), by
Russell Targ and fellow Scientologist Hal Puthoff. Neither of the research
subjects is still with the Church of Scientology. Pat Price died some years
ago, and Ingo Swann left Scientology in 1983.

17.
 
and Norman Starkey, who directs
Author Services Inc., and controls the Hubbard estate.

Chapter Forty-Two

“Brainwashing has become so much of a
subject that it is very well for anybody having to do with the field of the
human mind to be able to understand the intentions behind it and how it is
done.”

—L.
Ron Hubbard,
Operational Bulletin 8
, 13 December 1955

It is paradoxical that people who become involved in
Scientology to increase their “self-determinism” if they join staff usually
accept a life of increasing self-sacrifice and “other-determinism” (control by
others). Sea Org conditions are the worst: atrocious, over-crowded and often
bug-infested housing; only one afternoon’s free time each two weeks; almost no
time with their children (who have often been kept in deplorable conditions);
no medical or dental insurance; months together of a diet consisting solely of
rice and beans; long working hours and insufficient sleep. These combine to
make a regimen which is not only morally unacceptable, but can violate minimum
standards of Health and Labor laws. Guardian’s Office staff were slightly
better treated and better paid (but still below the poverty line) - presumably
their conditions have deteriorated with their absorption into the Sea Org.

Org staff members usually work slightly less than the ninety
hours or more of the Sea Org member, although they too are paid only a few
pounds a week. Mission staff usually fare a little better. Staff members
sacrifice their family life, their financial security and their careers to
“Clear the planet.” There is a conspiracy of silence about this maltreatment.
Scientologists are required to direct their complaints only to Organization
executives, using the Ethics Report system. Criticism relayed to any unauthorized
person is labeled “natter,” and the person who “natters” will soon be reported
to Ethics for corrective action.

Scientology is highly compartmented, and an air of secrecy
pervades most of its departments and activities. The Guardian’s Office
restricted knowledge of certain events to B-1. There was tremendous esprit de
corps, and B-1 agents remained mute about their work. In nine years, I heard
nothing of the criminal tactics they employed, and was incredulous when I
eventually read the affidavit of a former agent who had run a cell of
infiltrators in Boston. The Sea Org kept their austere life-style secret. The
public Scientologist is in a separate compartment. If a major malpractice was
reported by a public Scientologist to the Guardian’s Office it would usually be
brushed aside with a false reassurance. If the Scientologist was insistent he
might be threatened into silence. If there was enough discontent among
Scientologists at one of Hubbard’s schemes, a scapegoat would be found.
Problems often arose because of the conflict between Hubbard’s published Policy
and his secret orders, which were followed to the letter.

The Guardian’s Office maintained a series of front groups.
These are now directed by the Sea Org through the Office of Special Affairs, or
the Special Activities Corps. Scientology businesses belong to the World
Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE). Recently, Sterling Management have
attracted publicity for their business training schemes. Other front groups
used to be managed by the Social Co-ordination Bureau of the Guardian’s Office
(SoCo). SoCo was established to monitor and direct Scientology educational and
rehabilitation groups, and received a tithe for doing so. In 1989, the
Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) replaced SoCo. The Church
also runs anti-psychiatry groups, as well as a campaign for Freedom of Information
outside the US, and a campaign against Interpol. These groups are run by
trained Scientologists, committed to Hubbard’s principles. There is a bitter
irony in the Scientologists’ campaign for Freedom of Information, allowing
public access to government files. The GO never allowed such access by
Scientologists to their B-1 files. There is no evidence that these files have
been destroyed, nor the system abandoned.

In Britain, the Effective Education Association teaches
children “Study Tech.” Applied Scholastics and Education Alive function in the
US, where the Apple and Delphi schools are accredited. Greenfields is the name
of the Scientology school near Saint Hill, in England. The headmaster of
Delphi, in Oregon, has claimed that children who are not educated in
Scientology schools are being “psych-washed” by the educational system.
¹
Further, he has said that Delphi wants non-Scientologist children so that the Scientology
children, who are being trained to become leaders, can gain experience in
dealing with “wogs.”
²

A brief investigation shows that the extravagant claims made
by Narconon, the Scientology drug rehabilitation program, are largely false,
including claims of endorsement by governments and state authorities. Those who
do withdraw from drug abuse are often recruited into Scientology.
³

In their anti-psychiatry campaign, Guardian’s Office tactics
included infiltrating hospitals, stealing psychiatric records and spreading
libels about psychiatrists during ‘noisy investigation’. The campaign was
stepped up when psychiatrists became active in the anti-cult movement.
Psychiatrist John Clark and psychiatrist Margaret Singer were viciously libeled
and harassed for speaking out in public, and for their testimony as hostile
expert witnesses in cases involving Scientology.

As ever, Hubbard’s ultimate motive for these campaigns is
questionable, but good came from some of them. There have certainly been
psychiatric abuses, and they were rightly publicized. The Guardian's Office
played a part in the exposure of ‘MK Ultra’, a long-running and terrifying
series of experiments in mind-control funded by Canadian, British and US
Intelligence Agencies. GO staff saw themselves as crusaders against dark
forces. They encountered enough duplicity in government to dismiss out of hand
attacks upon Scientology. And they worked out of commitment to social change;
it certainly was not for personal gain. The good Scientologists have done does
not compensate for the harm. Scientology’s motives are also highly questionable.
The campaigns were largely an attempt to manipulate public opinion and divert
critics from Scientology malpractices.