Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (73 page)

It is a Hubbard maxim that Public Relations should provide
an “acceptable truth,” tailored to fit the “reality” of a given audience.
⁴
The practice essentially filters all statements given to the general public and
public Scientologists. In the Guardian’s Office it brought into being the
technique called elsewhere “plausible denial.” Using an acceptable truth at
first meant avoiding embarrassing aspects of the truth, and later, more simply,
lying. The Church of Scientology has the protection of its public image so
deeply ingrained that its representatives perhaps believe the lies they tell
about their membership, Hubbard’s income, and past misdeeds. The WISE and ABLE
front groups are a part of this ongoing deception. The “acceptable truth” is
their purported autonomy from the Church, coupled with the idea that they act
primarily out of social concern.

Church Scientologists also justify their incessant attacks
upon critics and perceived enemies through the courts as an ethical practice:
the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics. So, in accordance with
Hubbard’s dictum, the law is indeed used to harass. Of course, more directly
harassive tactics have also been used, usually but not always remaining just
inside the law, and bearing a marked similarity to the Campaign to Re-elect
President Nixon’s “ratfucking,” made public during the Watergate scandal.
Disrupting meetings, making false allegations in anonymous phone calls, giving
information from confidential counseling folders to the police, stealing
medical and psychiatric records, burglary, bugging, and infiltrating government
agencies.

The compartmenting of Scientology runs throughout the
organization and throughout the literature. And even in the compartments there
are hierarchies. Not only does the Scientologist not see Hubbard’s statements
with the emphasis they have been given here, but some of the references are to
obscure and secret materials. The sequence in which information is presented is
crucial.

Having given an initially favorable impression, it is easier
to persuade someone to believe a slightly irrational statement, and from
thence, gradually to persuade them to believe ever more wildly irrational statements.
This all takes place in the setting of peer group pressure: as in most cults,
Scientologists are highly solicitous towards new members.

The sheer volume of material obscures Hubbard’s true
intentions. The Technical Bulletins, the books, and most of Hubbard’s tapes
deal with the procedures of counseling. Most of the Church’s public see mainly
these issues, and either receive auditing, or train to become auditors. Policy
Letters deal with the Organization. Some public do “admin” courses, so they can
apply Hubbard’s administration techniques to their own businesses.

There are many forms of internal directive, some distributed
to all staff, others only to Sea Org staff (the 4,000 or more Flag Orders fit
largely into this category), others only to Guardian’s Office staff. Many are
unavailable to the public Scientologist, or indeed to anyone without a high
enough position in the Organization for which the directive was written. So
there are B-1 directives which were only available to individuals who had
passed through a stringent series of filters.

Individuals evaluate information differently, selecting
different priorities. In such a quantity of material, there is usually a
preferable opinion, which can be used either to avoid or to enforce an
excessive rule. Moderate Scientologists will justify excesses as examples of
Hubbard’s frustration at human incompetence.

Hubbard’s utterances can be separated into several
categories. He wrote many short essays for release in Scientology magazines in
the 1950s and 1960s. These were designated “Broad Public Issue” (BPI), and
included “
My Philosophy
”
⁵
where he spoke of having worked his
way back from being “permanently physically disabled”, and said “one should
share what wisdom one has, one should help others to help themselves, and one
should keep going despite heavy weather for there is always a calm ahead.” In
“What is Greatness”
⁶
he said: “The hardest task is to continue to
love one’s fellows despite all reasons he should not. And the true sign of
sanity and greatness is to so continue.” By this standard, Hubbard could make
no claim to greatness: he was petty and vindictive in the extreme.

Hubbard essays, supplemented by extracts from lectures, are
reprinted endlessly in Scientology magazines. They sell Scientology as a
cure-all, insisting that there is hope for everyone if they only embrace Scientology.

Inside Scientology there are a number of broadly known and
often quoted Policy Letters. The most important is “Keeping Scientology
Working,”
⁷
where the Scientologist is sternly admonished to police
the use of Scientology and ensure that there are no departures from Hubbard’s
teachings. A list of 10 points is given for the protection of “Standard Tech,”
among them “hammering out of existence incorrect technology.” This Policy
Letter exists on all but introductory Scientology courses. It is there to
inculcate reverence to Hubbard as the “Source” of Scientology, and to show the
crucial role of the Scientologist’s mission on Earth.

“The Responsibilities of Leaders” is another well-known
Policy Letter.
⁸
It is usually referred to as the “Bolivar,” because
Hubbard wrote it after reading a paperback biography of Simon Bolivar’s
mistress, Manuela Saenz. Hubbard discussed Bolivar’s mistakes at length, and
then presented seven maxims for the retention of power. Among these we find:

5. When you move off a point of power, pay all your
obligations on the nail, empower 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 and go
live in Bulgravia [sic] and bribe the police...

6. ... to live 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” ... 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 those dead
bodies doing at the door?” And if you’re clever, you never let it be thought HE
killed them - that weakens you and also hurts the power source...

7. ... 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 ... Real powers are developed by tight conspiracies ...
pushing someone up in whose leadership they have faith.

While this Policy Letter is available to all Scientologists,
many others are not. Confidential counseling, or Tech, issues are distributed
with care. The public Scientologist taking OT3 knows far less than an OT3
review (Class 8) auditor knows about the supposed OT3 incident. Only Sea Org
members have ever been allowed to train as Class 10, 11 and 12 auditors, or as
NOTs auditors. Some issues and tapes were restricted to Sea Org “missionaires”
going from Flag to raise the stats in the outer Orgs. There were also many
confidential Guardian’s Office issues.
⁹
Because of compartmentation,
it is possible that no single individual in the Church saw all of this
confidential material.
¹⁰
Sea Org members were not usually in the GO,
so their secret indoctrination was kept largely separate. People who were
highly trained in the Tech were not usually involved in administrative work,
and almost never in Guardian’s Office work. The secret issues included tapes of
Hubbard lectures made specifically for a given audience. They differ markedly
from the broadly issued material. For example, there are confidential Public
Relations issues which explain how to discredit critics. There is no suggestion
that the subject of criticism be investigated; only the critic.

The image that Hubbard wished to project becomes clearer to
the Scientologist as he receives more counseling and more training, and moves
into higher and ever more remote positions in the organization. The
cognoscenti, the tiny few who have received all the counseling techniques and
reached the heights of management, have a very developed view of the Commodore.
He is a great spirit, responsible through the millennia for many (if not most)
of the real achievements of history, and, indeed, those of the quadrillenia of
prehistory. He was Rawl (the imprisoner of Xenu, perpetrator of OT3), the
Buddha, and Cecil Rhodes. He is reborn, life after life, to benefit humanity,
and in preparation for the great work of liberating mankind, and all intelligent
life in the universe from captivity. Most Scientologists feel that they have
served the Commodore in earlier lifetimes. Some insist that they were with him
on his fictitious attacks on German submarines during the Second World War.
Hubbard was scientist, philosopher and messiah rolled into one. Scientologists
forget that he was not only a science-fiction writer, but also a competent
hypnotist. A very competent hypnotist.
¹¹

1.
   
Larson letter of 17 June 1985.

2.
   
Larson letter of 19 August 1987.

3.
   
In December 1991, the Oklahoma Mental Health Board issued a considered
statement condemning the Narconon at Chilocco, Oklahoma, and severely criticizing
the Purification Rundown.

4.
   
HCOPL “PR series 2 - The Missing Ingredient”, 13 August 1970,
Organization
Executive Course
, vol.6, p.396.

5.
   
Technical Bulletins
, vol.5, p.1.

6.
   
Technical Bulletins
, vol.5, p.154.

7.
   
HCOPL, 7 February 1965, Technical Bulletins, vol.6, p.4.

8.
   
HCOPL & HCOB, 12 February 1967,
Organization Executive Course
,
vol.7, p.357.

9.
   
and lectures - transcripts of some Hubbard lectures on dirty tricks were
available only to B-1 personnel. Fortunately, several of these were released by
the court during the case against Mary Sue Hubbard, et al.

10.
 
Such
an individual would have to be a Class 12 auditor (and therefore a Sea Org
member), have worked in Ron’s Technical Research and Compilations in CMO (which
has a tiny staff, to deal with the otherwise undistributed Hubbard taped
“Advices”), and have held top positions in GO Legal, PR and Information. No
such individual is known to this author. Less than 100 people have taken the
Class 12 course (only 24 took it during Hubbard’s lifetime – all 24 have
subsequently left the organization); less than 100 people have worked in RTRC –
none of them Class 12s; no high-ranking GO official trained to Class 12, and
only Tom Vorm had anything like access to the “hidden data” of Hubbard’s daily
CMO tapes (Vorm held the Controller’s Archive for a while). Even if someone had
taken all of these courses, and heard all of the daily tapes, such a person
might still be unaware of, for example, the extensive Goals-Problem-Mass
materials of the early 1960s.

11.
 
“I
had studied hypnotism in Asia [i.e., in his teens]” Hubbard in Dianetics the
Evolution
of a Science
, p.22. A dozen years later, he was still using hypnosis:
“These are tests. They have been made on people who could be hypnotized and
people who could not but were drugged. They brought forth valuable data for Dianetics.”
Hubbard in
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
, p.57. There
are many references to hypnotism in Hubbard’s lectures and books, most
especially between 1950 and 1952. See also Atack ‘Never Believe a Hypnotist’,
1995, http://home.snafu.de/tilman/j/hypnosis.html

Bibliography

“Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do
men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”

—Matthew
7:16

Since this book was written, Hubbard’s works have been
edited by the publishers (although this violates the doctrinal tenets laid out
in Keeping Scientology Working). Please be careful to refer to the specific
edition given in the bibliography. See also reference notes. Non-Scientology
periodicals are not listed in this bibliography.

 This book has barely touched upon the issue of
manipulation. Steven Hassan’s Combatting Cult Mind Control is a good
introduction. He goes further with his fine Freedom of Mind. Margaret Singer
and Janja Lalich’s Cults in Our Midst is also a vital text. The works of Robert
Jay Lifton are indispensable. See especially,
Destroying the World to Save
It
. The films Leap of Faith and Monty Python’s Life of Brian give valuable
insights into cultish behaviors. Derren Brown gives the sharpest insight into
the manipulable nature of just about anyone, and proof positive that mind
control exists.

For an overview of Scientology beliefs and techniques see
The Volunteer Minister’s Handbook. After
A Piece of Blue Sky
was
released, several of the author’s papers and articles were published on the
internet.

Hubbard’s admissions or affirmations are absolutely essential
reading: http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/writings/ars/ars-2000-03-11.html

The complete ‘Skipper’ letter of 1939 is, for this author,
the single most important Hubbard document. It was written on the heels of his
discovery of the principles that would become Scientology, also written, as
Excalibur
,
in 1939.

The contradiction between his public face and his private
beliefs is startling. The 10 April 1953 letter to Helen O’Brien is also a must
read.

Finally, the only hostile TV interview of Hubbard, The
Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard shows the nervous disposition of the
OT-maker, as he tells the world that he, ‘Had no second wife.’ Just a first and
then a third wife, so it seems.