The more I learned about Hubbard the more fascinated I became to find how eagerly everybody kept *underrating* him. The reason, I guessed, was because we tend to give others much more credit for insight, objectivity, and personal self-confidence than we should.
Hubbard survived to succeed because enough people wanted him to succeed. At the same time, news stories about him and his activities have always been smugly snide, written in that almost traditional "God-forbid-we-should-give-the-crackpot-credence" style. Which is also understandable, except for the fact that a man like Hubbard *thrives* on being dismissed by the establishment. Late in 1952, *Time* magazine reported the appearance of Scientology, saying: "His [Hubbard's] latest ology is compounded of equal parts of science fiction, dianetics (with 'auditing,' 'preclears,' and engrams), and plain jabberwocky." The jabberwocky was substantiated by quoting from one of Hubbard's new books, *Scientology: 8-80*: "An individual who cannot get out of his body immediately can look around inside his head and find the black spots and turn them white...."
I would be perfectly prepared to dismiss this sentence as utter nonsense, except that a sincere Scientologist I met during my inquiries told me, with no prompting or being brought around to the subject, that "the greatest thing was the day I suddenly looked inside my head and I turned the black
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spots white!" To me, this seemed there than a believer swallowing everything and *anything* the leader says; here was an apparently rational being demonstrating that he had been brought to a stage where he was capable of doing - to himself - that which L. Ron Hubbard said could be done. How the hell do you just dismiss that?
In the spring of 1952, Hubbard resigned from the bankrupt Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Wichita "to further pursue," in the words of the Foundation, "investigations into the incredible and fantastic." Hubbard ignored the jibe and immediately set up something which he called The Hubbard College. He had married once more - his new wife was a Texas girl named Mary Sue Whipp who had been active in the research foundation - and was busy developing the tenets of his new science: Scientology, an exact definition of which would be "Knowing how to know."
Scientology introduced theories and techniques which made the engrams and reveries of Dianetics look like a mild dress rehearsal. I will go into their absolutely monunmental proportions later, but for the moment, to suggest a little something of what Hubbard was about, listen to this from one of the new books, *Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought*. "Probably the greatest discovery of Scientology," Hubbard wrote, "and its most forceful contribution to the knowledge of mankind has been the isolation, description and handling of the human spirit. Accomplished in July, 1951, in Phoenix, Arizona, I established along scientific rather than religious or humanitarian lines that that thing which is the person, the personality, is separable from the body and the mind at will without causing bodily death or mental derangement." He named this "thing" the *theta*, after the Greek letter 0, and said it possessed the capacity to create. What it created Hubbard called MEST, that acronym of the first letters of matter, energy, space, and time, the stuff of existence as we know it. Hubbard taught
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these theories and the techniques necessary to achieve a state of enlightened discovery of one's own *theta*. This became his new definition for *clear*, replacing the old dianetic notion, which now became the preliminary state to *clear*, and made of the person studying Scientology a *preclear*.
Hubbard taught all this at his Hubbard College, awarding graduates a degree of "Registered Dianeticist," with a license to give courses in dianetic processing in their own offices and schools. The cost of the course, which, when concluded, provided not only the degree but necessary films and texts, was originally $1,000. By March 1, 1952, the price had gone up to $1,500, and a few weeks later, on the twentieth, it went up to $2,000. On June 1, Hubbard raised it once more, to a flat $5,000.* At much the same time, he organized another corporation in Kansas, Scientific Press, Inc., which published and distributed the writings and texts used by his students and his "Registered Dianeticists." He also went to Phoenix, Arizona, and organized the Hubbard Association of Scientologists (HAS), stating that its purpose was to publish material related to behavior studies and to train qualified people in Scientology.
In early 1953 Hubbard went to Philadelphia and incorporated the Hubbard Association of Scientologists of Pennsylvania, Inc., and in the fall, opened HAS branches in Camden, New Jersey, and London, England. Things did not go well for Scientology either in Camden or Philadelphia, so early in 1954 he closed down both those operations and returned to Phoenix, now his headquarters, and incorporated the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (HASI), Inc., presumably to facilitate Scientology's overseas expansion. He began publishing a periodical, *Scientology*, and offered a "Summary Course In Dianetics & Scientology" for $382.50.
*Records give no indication of how many people actually signed up for any of these courses, no matter what the cost.
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He also set up a Hubbard College Graduate School and charged a flat $25 registration fee, offering a degree of Bachelor of Scientology. Electropsychometers, now called E-Meters, were also on sale, for $98.50. They had by this time completely replaced *dianetic reverie* and were essential to Scientology. Hubbard's brochures for the machines described them as capable of registering "relative degrees of dynamic psycho-physical stress from moment to moment during the dianetic session," indicating "the approximate Hubbardian tone-scale of the preclear from 1.0 to *infinitely high ranges* [italics his]." He fixed the importance of the E-Meter once and for all when he wrote, in a later brochure: "Bluntly, auditing can't be at optimum without an electropsychometer. An auditor auditing without a machine reminds one of a hunter hunting ducks at pitch black midnight, firing his gun off in all directions."
By 1955, Dianetics had rejoined Hubbard's fold on something of an official basis. The Research Foundation in Los Angeles with whom he had broken had fallen on hard times and Hubbard was able to make some kind of peace with its directors. Hubbard celebrated this reunion by holding what he called a Unification Congress. But he was not about to throw his weight behind the reintroduction of the name "Dianetics." Scientology was doing well and it would have been foolish to drop it. In his own special way, Hubbard himself explained the reason for retaining "Scientology." In an article entitled "Scientology: A New Science," which was published in *Scientology magazine* in 1954, he wrote: "The basic science was named 'Scientology' in 1938. In 1947 L. Ron Hubbard [many of Scientology's articles, written in a style and syntax that can only be his, seek some special pertinence by being both anonymous and referring to Hubbard in the third person] changed its name to 'Dianetics' in order to make a social test of publication and popularly. The test completed, in 1952 he changed the science back to its original name,
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Scientology. This was done to inhibit its being monopolized for private purposes."*
In June of 1955, Hubbard and his wife, Mary Sue, moved the center of his activities to Washington, D.C., where they set up The Founding Church of Scientology. That same year, in November, a Founding Church of Scientology was incorporated in New York as an unincorporated independent church "pursuant to Article 8 of the Religious Corporations Law," which states that "an 'unincorporated church' is a congregation, society, or other assemblage of persons who are accustomed to statedly meet for divine worship or other religious observances, without having been incorporated for that purpose." Scientology was able to qualify easily, and auditors and officers of The Founding Church of Scientology legitimately began to call themselves "ministers," defined by the same law as follows: "The term 'clergyman' and the term 'minister' include a duly authorized pastor, rector, priest, rabbi, and a person having authority from, or in accordance with, the rules and regulations of the governing ecclesiastical body of the denomination or order, if any, to which the church belongs, or otherwise from the church or synagogue to preside over and direct the spiritual affairs of the church or synagogue.
Some years later, Hubbard was asked by an interviewer why he had turned Scientology into a religion. "To some," he answered, "this seems mere opportunism, to some it would seem that Scientology is simply making itself bulletproof in the eyes of the law, and to some it might appear that any association with religion is a reduction of the ethics and purposes of Scientology itself....Why should Scientology ally
* For the record, the name Scientology was first used by a German social psychologist, Dr. A. Nordenholz, who in 1934 published a book entitled *Scientologie: Science of the Constitution & Usefulness of Knowledge/Knowing* (Ernest Reinhardt, Munich). Its contents and relevance to Scientology will be discussed in greater detail elsewhere.
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itself with religion? There are many, many reasons. Amongst them is that a society accords to men of the church an access not given to others. Prisons, hospitals, and institutions... cannot do otherwise than welcome men of the church...."
In answer to what must have obviously been inquiries regarding the ritualistic nature of Scientology, the Founding Church eventually published a book entitled *Ceremonies of The Founding Church of Scientology*. It described the basic church services practiced by Scientology and gave outlines for sample sermons, as well as the procedure for weddings, christenings, and funerals. Most of the ceremonies are traditional, one might even call them basic, with Scientological acknowledgments of aspects of mortality and immortality not unlike those expressed by other faiths. Only the christening ceremony stands out as somewhat unique, free to express itself more along the lines of Scientology's theology. The section for this ceremony explains that, "the main purpose of a Christening is to help get the thetan oriented. He has recently taken over his new body. He is aware that it is his and that he is operating it. However he has never been told the identity of his body."
As an example, an informal christening service Hubbard performed in 1957 is reprinted. Addressing himself to the babe, he introduced the parents and designated godparents to those gathered. Then, still addressing the child, he continued: "How are you? All right. Now your name is ______. You got that? Good. There you are. Did that upset you? Now, do you realize that you're a member of HASI? Pretty good, huh? All right. Now I want to introduce you to your father. This is Mr. _____. (To the parent): Come over here. (To the child): And here's your mother. And now, in case you get into trouble and want to borrow some quarters here's Mr. _____. See him? He's your godfather. Now, take a look at him. That's right. And here's _____, in case you want some real good auditing; she's your godmother. Got it? Now you are
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suitably christened. Don't worry about it, it could be worse. O.K. Thank you very much. They'll treat you all right."
For the years between 1955, when Hubbard came to Washington, D.C., and 1959, when he and Mary Sue left for England, The Founding Church of Scientology was the "Mother Church." All Scientology churches and congregations in the United States, as well as locally incorporated branches of either a local HASI or the Phoenix corporation, were under the leadership and guidance of L. Ron Hubbard. Advertisements for The Founding Church of Scientology in local newspapers made little reference to its activities as a religious organization. Their messages were directed more to the improvement of an individual's health, personality, and techniques to increase one's I.Q., as well as offering guidance in problems of marriage and the raising of children. In the Yellow Pages, Scientology was listed under three categories: "Personal Development," "Personal Consultants," and "Churches - Various Denominations."
The Founding Church of Scientology offered a three-week intensive processing course for $1,250, and practiced a variety of methods designed to increase the rolls of its membership. Among the most prominent in the late fifties were three Hubbard had outlined in issue No. 73 of the *Professional Auditors Bulletin*: "I Will Talk To Anyone," "Illness Researches," and "Casualty Contact." The first involved the placing of newspaper advertisements which announced: "Personal counseling - I will talk to anyone for you about anything. Phone Reverend so-and-so between hour and hour." When someone would call the reverend and try to explain a particular problem, he would explain, with utmost discretion, that it was impossible to discuss a case over the telephone and please to come in personally. "Illness Researches" also involved the placing of advertisements in newspapers, but these read: "Polio Victims. A research foundation, investigating polio, desires volunteers suffering from the after effects of that
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illness to call for examination at _____." Anyone coming in would find himself being audited and then strongly urged to join The Founding Church of Scientology.
Typically, Hubbard justified any suggestion of duplicity by writing, "It was given under the guise of investigation and was in actuality a research project....Any auditor can constitute himself as a minister or an auditor, a research worker in the field of any illness. In that he is not offering to treat or cure the illness but is strictly investigating it, the laws concerning medicine do not obtain to him. Anybody, even a ditch-digger, can look over polio or arthritis or asthma or anything else." Thus his instructions continued: "It is best that a minister representing himself as a 'charitable organization,' which is what he is, do the research so that the advertisement would then read: 'Polio victims - a charitable organization investigating polio desires to examine several victims of the after effects of this illness. Phone so and so."
Grimmest of all the methods was "Casualty Contact," which Hubbard calmly described as follows:
One takes every daily paper he can get his hands on and cuts from it every story whereby he might have a preclear. He either has the address in the story itself or he gets the address as a minister from the newspaper. As speedily as possible he makes a call on the bereaved or injured person....He should represent himself to the person or the person's family as a minister whose compassion was compelled by the newspaper story concerning the person. He should then enter the presence of the person and give a nominal assist, leave his card which states exactly where church services are held every Sunday and with the statement that a much fuller recovery is possible by coming to these free services takes his departure. A great many miracles will follow in his wake and he is later to become a subject of the press himself. However, in handling the press we should simply say that it is a mission of the Church to assist those who are in need of assistance.
Anticipating that certain practices and policies of his Founding Church of Scientology might run into trouble, Hubbard
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organized something called the National Academy of American Psychology, and in 1957 sent out a "loyalty oath" to psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and "ministers of various denominations who engage in mental practice." The oath's text was reprinted in Scientology's *Certainty* magazine, in 1958, as follows:
I hereby subscribe to the following Code of Ethics and Practice and swear to abide by it at all times. I do solemnly swear:1) To support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to same.
2) To refuse to practice "Brainwashing" upon American citizens.
3) To actively prevent the teaching of only foreign psychology in public schools and universities.
4) To engage in no conspiracy to commit or "treat" persons for purely self-interested or political reasons.
5) To refuse to protect criminals by supporting questionable pleas of insanity at trials.
6) To discourage all violence against the mentally ill.
7) To refuse to use, advocate or experiment with physical methods of "therapy" upon patients which might bring about incapacitating physical injury to the patient's brain tissue or body.
8) To use only methods of mental practice or techniques of therapy upon patients which I would willingly experience myself to the same extent or duration that I apply them or advocate that they be applied.
9) To refuse to contribute money, dues or my services to organizations which knowingly impede American scientific research programs or which work to discredit American psychologists to the public.
10) To refute propaganda to the effect that the study of psychology is hopeless, that I.Q. cannot be improved and that personality cannot be changed.
11) To refuse to accept for counseling or psychological assistance and to refuse to accept money from any patient or group I feel I cannot honestly help and to offer no solution or cure I cannot accomplish.
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12) To refuse to advertise beyond the display of my professional card and the supported claims of my school of mental practice.
13) To render good treatment, sound training and good discipline to those students or people entrusted to my care.
14) To engage in no unseemly disputes with the uninformed on the subject of my profession.
15) To refuse to interfere with the lives of my patients beyond actual treatment.
16) To refer to competent medical treatment, ills which demand medical attention.
17) To hold in confidence the secrets of my patients.
18) To accept as fellow psychologists only psychologists adhering to this code and to speak no words of criticism in public of them. I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations, or purpose of evasion: So help me God.
Hubbard wrapped up his ingenious, all-purpose loyalty oath by announcing that anyone who refused to sign it - it was not only to be signed, with two witnesses, but "subscribed and sworn to before" a notary public - would be classified "potentially subversive," while anyone who dared to "rail" against it would be openly branded "subversive" and his name would be turned over to the Federal government for "appropriate action."
Over the years Hubbard's running war with psychiatry and psychology has, if anything, become more ferocious. Last spring, he wrote: "The psychiatrist and his front groups operate straight out of the terrorist text books. The Mafia looks like a convention of Sunday School teachers compared to these terrorist groups."
I could never make out a consistent pattern to Hubbard's restless and continual establishment of new organizations designed to advance and disseminate the world of Scientology. They seem more motivated by an urge to keep things *moving*, generating a kind of business which implies importance. There is something of the overworked, hyper-pressured conglomerate
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executive in the way Hubbard threw together - legally incorporating every time - groups, organizations, and associations. All of it had that smell of the grandiose but insubstantial, the quickie letterhead house designed to keep you from asking too many "technical" questions. Rather than allow Hubbard's various ventures to confound me, I carefully took them apart, one by one, tried to describe their function, and then located the links which represented his ever-expanding network. It all leads to no small appreciation of the shining versatility he had for generating Scientological activities, *all* of which he controlled absolutely.
In 1955, Hubbard incorporated something called the Congress of Eastern Scientologists, a name which, in 1957, he changed for some obscure business reason to the Congress of Scientologists. During the four years of his Washington, D.C., activities, two congresses were held, each lasting a few days, normally two, at a hotel in the city. In 1956, some 450 people attended "The Games Congress," and in 1958 about 140 persons paid $800 each to attend a second congress. Hubbard personally made all the plans and worked out each program for the conventions. He wrote and delivered all the lectures, and for all this he was paid a fee by the Congress oF Scientologists, Inc., a total of $22,683.94 for his energetic contribution and participation on the two occasions.
Hubbard incorporated a Washington, D.C., branch of HASI in 1957, and until 1959 its operations were directed by a three-member board of directors, two of whom were Hubbard and his wife, Mary Sue. Between them they had the power to elect all officers. In addition to being on the board of directors of The Founding Church of Scientology as well as working on and being personally responsible for every facet of Scientology's activities, Hubbard was also the organization's financial manager and had complete operational responsibility for all fiscal affairs. This control encompassed not only HASI and The Founding Church of Scientology, but yet
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another organization called the Distribution Center, Inc., which was responsible for the printing and distribution of all Scientology publications. The business of books had become particularly important to Hubbard because, as he put it, they made "thousands in money and friends" for Scientology. A new book appeared on an average of one every six months and resulted in local sales of between 6,000 and 9,000 copies, recovering all printing costs in approximately eighty days.
Quite simply, Hubbard ran Scientology like a very tight ship. A disbursement sheet of each week's financial activities had to be on his desk by 2 P.M. of the Monday of the following week. He personally hired and fired each and every member off the staff. He supervised all processing and read all of the auditor's reports. He wrote the teaching materials for the elementary course then being taught, the Personal Efficiency Course, and he also taught it. All awards of certificates were made by him personally. And in his office safe he had signed resignations from every officer and trustee of every Scientology church in the country.
Until 1959, everyone in Scientology worked on straight salary. Then Hubbard made a few changes. He created a new post, HCO Accounts, HCO standing for the Hubbard Communications Office, and he appointed Mary Sue director of accounts. From then on she received weekly income sheets showing the total income from HASI, Inc., and DCI, Inc. At the same time, Hubbard stopped paying straight salaries and introduced a percentage or commission system of payment. Hubbard himself was paid 10 percent of all gross income. Outside Washington, D.C., Scientology churches and organizations paid this amount into a local HCO account.
Anyone owing Scientology money became the subject of a collection folder. Each folder had copies of any outstanding invoices and a careful record of all payments made. In addition, folders contained copies of all contracts and due notes - people were allowed in effect to borrow money from
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Scientology to pay for being in Scientology. Once a month, these folders were summarized and statements were sent out. If somebody was late to pay, The Founding Church often mailed out collection letters, some of them rather harshly worded and not averse to threatening legal action. Past-due notes were also turned over to collection agencies.
In March of 1959, Hubbard and Mary Sue left Washington, D.C., and moved to England, where Scientology was already well established. Rather than settle in London, Hubbard chose Saint Hill Manor, a splendid English mansion which had been built in 1728, located just outside the small town of East Grinstead, in Sussex, some thirty miles from London. The Manor had at one time been the property of Mrs. Anthony Drexel Biddle, who had sold it to the Maharaja of Jaipur. In 1959 it became Scientology's world headquarters, presided over with baronial reserve by L. Ron Hubbard, who soon acquired a chauffeur, a car to be driven in, a Jaguar for himself, and a staff headed by a butler named Shepheardson who every afternoon brought Hubbard a bottle of Coca-Cola on a silver tray.
Through the extensive deployment of a Telex network on behalf of HCO (WW) - Hubbard Communications Office, World-Wide - Hubbard maintained split-second communication with all of the HASI and Scientology Church organizations throughout the world. While he was actively involved in the day-to-day operation of these various HASI and church branches, it was via HCO (WW) that he produced the never-ending stream of bulletins, policy letters and information letters. These communiques were crucial because they spelled out, in no uncertain terms, *exactly* what the latest technique was, or how official policy had been changed. They were identifiable not only by name, but by color of ink as well. HCO Bulletins were normally printed in bright red ink, with a headline at the top announcing the procedure to be discussed. HCO Policy Letters were printed in green ink and
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would discuss anything from a specific policy change to a general warning about "Things That Shouldn't Be." HCO Information Letters came in blue ink and tended to be rather chatty. Each type of letter bore a legend explaining to whom distribution was to he made, as for example: "Remimeo: All Students, All Staff." Conversely, any communiques from people in the field were sent directly to HCO (WW), though protocol dictated the notion that they were addressing themselves to HASI, Ltd. Hubbard himself described the proper function of HCO (WW) in an HCO information letter dated February 8, 1964. "HCO (WW) Ltd.," he wrote, "is concerned with the Organizations of Scientology on a world wide basis. It deals with Ron's personal communications to and from the HCO's, ORGS and Field, and with the Franchise Holders. It sends out Ron's policies and technical data. It has its own direct line to the HCO's, ORGS and City Offices all over the world." In addition, though not necessarily through HCO (WW), a weekly report on the processing of every *preclear* throughout the world was forwarded to Hubbard at Saint Hill.
In the years that followed Hubbard's arrival at Saint Hill, there was both a mellowing and a refinement in his policies for bringing new people into Scientology. The somewhat grisly methods of "Illness Researches" and "Casualty Contact" seem to have been forsaken for a more direct, snappy, businesslike approach. In an HCO Bulletin of April 9, 1960, Hubbard wrote:
When the prospect comes in, see him or her at once (No waiting). Be courteous, friendly, businesslike. Rise when they enter and leave. Call reception to show them out if they stay too long. Be willing to take their money. Always prefer cash to notes. We are not a credit company. Always see the student or the pc [preclear] before they leave the place after service. You can often sell more training or processing....It is a maxim that unless you have bodies in the shop you get no
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income. So on any pretext get the bodies in the place and provide ingress to the Registrar when they're there.
By 1965, through obvious trial and error, Hubbard was outlining the only way a local organization should set up its courses and services. Writing in an HCO Policy Letter dated August 13, 1965, he said:
One must NEVER recruit a body of people and then carry just that group up, opening new courses only when they are ready and closing the lower ones when emptied. I can tell you by grim experience that that is NOT the way to handle basic courses....One must continually nightly recruit new people and one must have in existence the next area up for them to move into....The assembly line must exist before one can get traffic to put on it....The key is standardize. Even out the traffic flow.
Hubbard went on to describe the proper allotment of space for the courses being given. He was emphatic on the need for an organization to have a separate reception room.
If you don't have a public reception centre and only have your org Comm Centre you ought to be ashamed and no wonder your receptionist and comm lines jam up. Public Reception ought to be separate. It should be plastered with promotion, personality graphs, tone scales, anything promotional. And the evening Introductory Lecture is given *every* evening. Same lecture.
Hubbard went on to urge heavy advertising of the free introductory lecture. He also urged each organization to "Get a Chaplain on the job and prominently display this sign: If you are in trouble with your training or Processing and nobody seems to listen, see the Chaplain, Room _____. He can help." Then, Hubbard explained, "groove in the Chaplain to be a Problems Officer, to listen and try to straighten up goofs by auditors and supervisors and suddenly your student and pc loss rate will almost vanish." Finally, Hubbard urged everyone to "Be Good. Your courses now *have* to be good. Your
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income depends not on enrollment but reenrollment...be crisp."
A proper, steady flow of new people into Scientology was particularly important to Hubbard, at Saint Hill, because the local churches and organizations throughout the world could take fledgling scientologists only up to a certain stage. Beyond that, actually to approach and then realize the pure state of "clear," they all had to make the trip to England, at their own expense, of course, and take their advanced grades of release; for the truly ultra-dedicated there was also another course, the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course. Quite obviously, if the source of new Scientologists was improperly managed, the number of people, considering a normal statistical attrition or percentage of dropouts, who would ultimately make that pilgrimage to Saint Hill, would simply dwindle.
In 1963 Scientology faced its first major challenge when the United States government filed suit requesting "seizure and condemnation of a certain article of device, hereinafter set forth," in accordance with laws established and enforced by the Food and Drug Administration. What the FDA was talking about was the E-Meter, and a complaint was filed on January 4, 1963. A lawful writ was issued and in short order the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C., was raided. E-Meters and books were seized, and further charges were filed
Hubbard knew the FDA had been nosing around his activities and tried to promulgate a change in the use of the E-Meter by Scientology. In an HCO Policy Letter dated October 29, 1962, he wrote that "regardless of any earlier uses of psycho-galvanometers in Dianetics or Psychology or in early Scientology publications when research was in progress, the Electrometer in Scientology today has *no* other use" except to "disclose truth to the individual who is being processed and thus free him spiritually." The E-Meter, he went on, "is a valid
76 SCIENTOLOGY religious instrument, used in Confessionals, and is in no way diagnostic and does not treat."
This declaration did not seem to help Scientology's predicament. The meters were seized, and the government charged that
in that the labeling for the E-Meter contains statements which represent, suggest and imply that the E-Meter is adequate and effective for diagnosis, prevention, treatment, detection and elimination of the causes of all mental and nervous disorders and illnesses such as neuroses, psychoses, schizophrenia, and all psychosomatic ailments of mankind such as arthritis, cancer, stomach ulcers, and radiation burns from atomic bombs, poliomyelitis, the common cold, etc., and that the article is adequate and effective to improve the intelligence quotient, and to measure the basal metabolism, mental state and change of state of man; which statements are false and misleading....
Scientology appealed, arguing that the search and seizure had been illegal, but some months later, from Saint Hill, Hubbard, something of a pillar of calm, issued an HCO Bulletin which said, "Government attacks have entered a more desultory stage. Meters will go to jury trial eventually and we will certainly win. The U.S. Government Attorney handling the case became terribly ill and had to resign it."
Hubbard was wrong and Scientology lost its appeal that the case be thrown out of court. The case was finally heard, and on April 19, 1967, more than four years having gone by, a decision was returned against Scientology, directing that the meters and all accompanying literature be destroyed. Scientology immediately appealed, again claiming illegal search and seizure. At the same time, Scientology's lawyers deposited a brief which suggested that all E-Meters be labeled as follows: "The Hubbard Electrometer is not intended for use in or effective for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease." It was their hope that this disclaimer would satisfy the FDA and inspire withdrawal of the destroy order. Though the government did not accept the
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proposals, all meters still in use were subsequently labeled with a message which reads: "The E-Meter is not intended or effective for the diagnosis, treatment or prevention of any disease."
In February of 1969, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., handed down its decision on Scientology's appeal. It reversed the decision of the federal jury and stated that until the government can offer proof that Scientology is not a religion, the E-Meters and the literature seized are protected by our rights of freedom of worship. The decision, which was handed clown by Judge J. Skelly Wright, said that from the point of view of Scientology, "auditing or processing is a central practice of their religion, akin to confession in the Catholic Church." Since the E-Meters do state that they are not used to diagnose or treat physical ills, but merely to work on the spirit, all accompanying E-Meter literature must be treated as Scripture.
Possibly because of the FDA's publicized interest and activities in 1963, Australia's Scientologists found themselves, that same year, the object of much scrutiny and criticism. By November of the year outcries reached such proportions that a formal board of inquiry, in the person of Queens Counselor Kevin Victor Anderson, was named.
Scientology had arrived in Australia in 1956. During the years which followed, it had become strongly established, particularly in Melbourne, in the state of Victoria. From the very beginning, Scientology's activities had drawn some curiosity on the part of civil authorities, but it was not until the press began to attack it publicly that demands were made in the Legislative Council that something be done. The Board of Inquiry was the result.
Hubbard had visited Australia in 1959 and, enthusiastic about the success his branches were enjoying, advanced the notion that Australia would be the world's first totally *clear* continent. Based on something he called his "Special Zone
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Plan," Be devised a plan through which he intended to bring the Australian Labor Party into Scientology. In January of 1961 he wrote Peter Roger Williams, Scientology's continental director for Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania:
My goals for the Zone Plan are to make my organization a Scientology Organization with all executives HPA (Hubbard Professional Auditor) graduates, and to use our publications to improve administration, management and communication in the Labor movement and interest the Australian Labor Party and Trade Union officials in taking scientology training. The Australian Labor Party as an organization using scientology principles would soon win a Government as soon as the next Federal election. With Australia led by a government employing scientology principles we should soon have a civilization which can extend influence overseas."*
In the beginning, Australian Scientologists welcomed the Board of Inquiry enthusiastically and proclaimed that the findings would once and for all vindicate Scientology and Dianetics. Hubbard himself went even further and said that the Board had actually been appointed because of Scientology's insistence that such an official investigation be made. The Melbourne HASI offices cooperated fully and made their records available to the Board. Demonstration sessions were organized, both in auditing and exercises, and facilities were provided for the playing of Hubbard's taped lectures. Hubbard
* The notion of scientology using its principles to improve management is not at all far-fetched and has become something of a reality. Several management consultant firms based on Scientology are active in the United States. For two years now, a successful scientologist named Alan Walter has been working with executives at the home office of Tenneco Oil Company, Dallas, Texas. Another management course is being taught in Austin, Texas, by a man named John McCoy. McCoy has also made a proposal to the administrator of the entire public school system of the state of Florida and it is claimed that a program is being developed by which all Florida public school teachers will be instructed in Scientology techniques to achieve more effectiveness in their classrooms. Furthermore, General Electric's Information Systems Department in Bethesda, Maryland, is said to be considering a management proposal made by Scientology Consultants to Management, a firm operated by Paul and Gloria Nickel.
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himself was invited to appear before the Board, but declined. Then, in October of 1964, Hubbard's lawyers requested that the state of Victoria pay his way from England to fly to Australia to give evidence. The request was refused, and the Board concluded that Hubbard had no intention of ever making such a trip; knowing his request would be rejected, he was using the rejection to criticize the conduct of the Board and its subsequent findings. All enthusiasm was gone and no more cooperation was given. Any notions of a Scientological Australia had been dashed in May of 1964, prior to the 1964 Victorian elections, when Williams, Scientology's continental director, had written an article in the Melbourne HASI Communications Magazine entitled "A Declaration of War." "It is the urgent duty of every scientologist in Victoria," he wrote, "to get out and make certain that the Australian Labor Party is defeated completely and thoroughly and forever at the election." His hostility, Williams explained later, was not political but stemmed from the ALP's wholly negative attitude towards HASI.
The final sitting of the Board of Inquiry was held on April 21, 1965, and a report was submitted on September 28, 1965. The Board had sat in hearing for 160 days, heard 151 witnesses, filed 621 numbered exhibits, and took 8,920 pages of testimony. To the best of its ability, it examined Scientology, as well as its predecessor, Dianetics, from every conceivable angle: the theories, the teaching of Scientology, its relationship to religion, the E-Meter, its healing claims, the financial aspects, the alleged benefits of Scientology processing, and the processes themselves. While there is, in the published report, a tendency towards repetition, as well as a fairly clear expression of one man's attitude as influenced by his personal spiritual beliefs, there is also, despite an avowed determination to remain objective, an overall failure fully to grasp either the source or intention of Hubbard's theories, as well as the ramification of the processes, techniques and exercises which go beyond even
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the many case histories studied and discussed. Yet one conclusion is stated in no uncertain terms: "However Hubbard may appear to his devoted followers, the Board can form no other view than that Hubbard is a fraud and scientology fraudulent."
On December 4, 1965, the state of Victoria passed an act to provide for the Registration of Psychologists, the Protection of the Public from Unqualified Persons and certain Harmful Practices and for other purposes." It was a sweeping measure, only a part of which - Part III: "Hypnotism and other practices" - dealt directly with Scientology. Use of the E-Meter by anyone other than a registered psychologist or someone who has received the consent of the Council became punishable by a fine of A$500. The teaching and/or application of Scientology was to be fined A$200 for the first offense, and A$500 plus a prison term of not more than two years for a second offense. Scientology was specifically defined as being the teachings and writings of L. Ron Hubbard as disseminated by HASI. The law further directed that any and all "scientological records" be delivered to the Attorney General. Failure to do so was liable to a fine of not more than A$200. Upon passage of the bill the police moved swiftly and raided the Melbourne HASI headquarters, seizing some 4,000 personal files.
Hubbard's answer was immediate. He issued a booklet entitled "Kangaroo Court," in which he referred to the transport in the 1700's of convicts from England to the state of Victoria. "The foundation of Victoria," he wrote, "consists of the riff-raff of London's slums, robbers, murderers, prostitutes, fences, thieves....The insane attack on Scientology can best be understood if Victoria is seen for what it is - a very primitive community, somewhat barbaric, with a rudimentary knowledge of the physical sciences. In fact, it is a scientific barbarism so bigoted that they know not and do not know they are ignorant."
Victoria's neighboring state of New South Wales, possibly
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because of the very negative reaction to the speedy seizure of Scientology papers and records, and in light of a declaration that there had been no significant increase in mental hospital admissions which could be directly attributed to Scientology, decided at the time of the Victorian passage of the law to take no action. The feeling was expressed in some N.S.W. government circles that passing a similar law would be like "using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut." At the same time, the obviously relieved secretary and director of Scientology's N.S.W. headquarters eagerly invited reporters to come in and see Scientology for themselves. They wanted to give "the public a little more information than they already have," and went on to explain that they "do not in any way at all, deal in the realms of psychology, psychiatry, healing, hypnotism or any of the other things we are accused of stating that we are authorities on." In 1966, the New South Wales Minister of Health, answering a question in the Legislative Assembly, said "we have come to the conclusion that there is little or no evidence that action should be taken to ban the organization in New South Wales."*
As if the turmoil of both the Victorian ban and the FDA
* The question of whether or not to ban Scientology in N.S.W. was raised again in 1968. Western Australia was introducing a bill to ban Scientology, South Australia had already passed one. But the Minister for Health for N.S.W., Mr. A. H. Jago, said that in N.S.W. "there is very little incidence of the more unfavourable features of this organisation." Thus, once again, N.S.W. did not act against the movement. Later the same month, the British-based headquarters of Scientology announced that they were making a A$2,679,000 interest-free loan to Scientology in Victoria, where it had been banned since 1965. The announcement said that the money would be used to build a "new study centre for art, culture, and humanity." The *Sydney Morning Herald* reported the loan and said that "local businessmen and civic leaders, with a record of honesty and integrity, would be invited to serve as trustees, a spokesman at the headquarters, near London, said." The story went on to say that Victoria's Minister for Health, Mr. V. O. Dickie, was doubtful that any Melbourne business or civic leaders would "have a bar of it. We have," he was quoted as saying, "an act which outlaws the teaching of scientology in this State, but we shall have to wait and see just what their real intentions are with this proposed study centre."
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case was not enough, by 1966 the Internal Revenue Service in this country was taking a very hard look at The Founding Church of Scientology, its structure, and its activities over the years since its incorporation. Hubbard, in England, possibly worn out by all the hassling, or simply exercising his prodigious talent for anticipation, made a dramatic move and publicly announced he was leaving Scientology forever. He sold his interests in HASI, Ltd., for 100,000 pounds sterling - $280,000 at the time - relinquishing the organization's "goodwill," as well as any legal responsibilities, and, in a move which stunned everyone, left for Rhodesia, where he reportedly bought a house on Lake Kariba and appeared on local television to repeat that he had finished with Scientology. His English followers, beset by all kinds of rumors, were immensely relieved when his self-imposed exile was briskly terminated, some say by the Rhodesian government, and he returned to England. His followers' concern may have been due to the fact that in 1964 Hubbard had stated that he had been approached by Fidel Castro's official representatives interested in sending a picked group of fifty to Saint Hill for Scientology training. Hubbard went on to say that as early as 1938 the Soviet Union was courting his services. "I was put under considerable argument and stress," he had told a reporter in 1964. "They offered me $200,000, all laboratory facilities, everything I needed in Russia." His answer was No, he said, adding that as a result his apartment "was blasted open," and his "basic manuscript" - he may have been referring to *Excalibur* - disappeared.
Once back in England Hubbard did not stay long, and soon retreated to the Mediterranean, where he ensconced himself as the commodore of the Scientological fleet, that he named his *Sea Org*, plying the warm waters of the Levant with a full crew of dedicated Scientologists on board, developing new techniques and making even newer discoveries. The Hubbard flagship is an old passenger ferry and ex-cattle boat, originally
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christened the *Royal Scotsman*. There is also a former Hull trawler, the *Avonriver*, and a yacht, *Enchanter*. More recently, when the *Sea Org* was made to feel unwelcome in Spanish ports, Hubbard made for the Greek Isles and chose Corfu as a land-base of operations. To please the Greek government, the ships were renamed *Apollo*, *Athena*, and *Diana*. I heard some vague reports that soon after Hubbard's arrival, the American consul in Corfu began receiving requests from scientologists aboard the ships asking for help to get off. This seems somewhat substantiated by the reports, in March 1969, that the Greek government suddenly gave Hubbard and about two hundred of the disciples twenty-four hours to get out - cast off from their Corfu moorings, actually. According to *The New York Times*, "the expulsion order followed months of pressure in Athens by American, British and Australian diplomats urging Greek authorities to examine the activities of the *Apollo* residents, most of them...Americans, but some... from Britain, Australia and South Africa." Whether the Greek government went to the trouble of examining these activities is open to question. What they did was brand the crowd "undesirables" and told them to get out. At the moment, I do not know where, exactly, the winds of chance have carried Hubbard's defiant little fleet. I do know that it has expanded to include seven vessels with names such as *Apollo*, *Athena*, *Diana*, *Neptune*, and *Aries*. The *Athena* is currently anchored off the coast of Denmark, while *Neptune* is supposedly assigned to the Pacific Flotilla which I take to be the two Sea Org ships anchored off Santa Monica, California.
Hubbard's role with regard to Scientology is virtually intact. He is still director of HCO (WW), collecting his 10 percent as paid in to HCO (WW). (With an estimated weekly gross income of $1.4 million, this means Hubbard is taking in $140,000 a week.) He keeps in constant touch with Scientology centers all over the world by way of his direct communications link to HASI, Ltd., at Saint Hill and the American Saint Hill
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Organization in Los Angeles. His hold had been additionally strengthened by the fact that his faithful wife, Mary Sue, bore until recently the official designation of "Guardian W.W.," a post now held by a Scientologist named Jane Kember.
Hubbard's departure from England in no way affected the IRS inquiries. Contending that The Founding Church of Scientology had a substantial nonreligious and commercial aspect to it through the sale of processing and training services, books, pamphlets, and E-Meters, the argument was simply that Scientology had not operated "exclusively" for religious and educational purposes, as defined in section 501 (c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. It was discovered that during the four years, from 1956 to June of 1959, that Hubbard and his wife, Mary Sue, operated The Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C., the organization took in gross receipts totaling $758,962 in Washington alone, and that during those four years never less than 90 percent of this gross income came from processing and training, rather than from something as clearly religious in nature as donations.
The government argued that Scientology's intentions and practice was to make money and to charge substantial sums for its services and to sell the books, not give them away. This was backed by citing Hubbard's HCO Policy Letter of January 30, 1966: "Money is a symbol. It represents success when you have it, and defeat when you don't, no matter who is putting out propaganda to the contrary."
The government also discovered that from the time Hubbard had left Washington for Saint Hill, the weekly 10 percent paid him by all affiliated Scientology churches and organizations and franchised branches was going directly to him in the name of HCO (WW). Some of the checks, the government found, had been deposited directly into Swiss banks.
The case was finally argued in July of 1967. Even before an opinion was handed down, Scientology churches in other states were in trouble. The California church, which had been
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granted tax exemption on January 2, 1957, found itself served on January 6, 1967, with a proposed revocation of that status effective back to January 1957. The same thing happened to the churches in New York, Michigan, and Florida. All faced the possibility of being hit for back taxes for periods as long as ten years.
In August of 1968, an "opinion" of a trial commissioner of the Court of Claims was affirmed. It favored revocation of the tax-exempt status of The Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, the Mother Church. The decision was immediately appealed. One year later, in the summer of 1969, the full court heard the appeal and held against The Founding Church of Scientology. This opened the road for the Internal Revenue Service to move not only against the Washington Church, but also the other Scientology churches throughout the country. No one can say exactly how much Scientology will be made to pay in back taxes. In the case of The Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, the IRS will be figuring from 1956, with 6 percent interest. Spread that through the country, and it must be the kind of penalty monies capable of hitting Scientology a very serious, if not crippling blow.
There are few legal maneuvers left open to Scientology. After losing the appeal in Washington, the church moved for a rehearing, asking the court to be good enough to look at what they did all over again. If that fails, they will certainly go to the Supreme Court and ask for a review of the case. My personal opinion is that it will be extremely difficult for The Founding Church of Scientology to have its case reviewed because the weight of the Court of Claims decision in the summer of 1969 rested on the enormous sums of money L. Ron Hubbard and his family have taken out of Scientology's operation. What was demonstrated to the satisfaction of that court was not that Scientology was functioning as something other than an organization with spiritual overtones, but that it was
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functioning for the profit of somebody, that somebody being L. Ron Hubbard.
The British government, during the summer of 1968 when Scientology lost the first round of its tax case in Washington, was forced to respond to growing concern on the part of some English citizens and to sharp questions being asked in the House of Commons. It clamped a restriction on non-English nationals from entering the country solely for the purpose of studying or practicing Scientology. England's experience with Scientology was more direct and tumultuous than elsewhere because Hubbard had, until 1966, made Saint Hill Scientology's world headquarters and shrine.
As early as 1960, Hubbard was wildly sniping away at English critics. Taking on the British Medical Association, he wrote, in an HCO Bulletin, July 24, 1960: "With what amazed surprise we viewed the recent attack upon us by the British Medical Association. With their hands caked with blood they sought to point a grisly finger at us and to bring down upon us the wrath of the government they claimed they controlled. Folly, thy name is medicine....I have found that the British Medical Association in England...has encouraged its doctors to spread vicious lies about us via their patients."
Although the English have a traditional tolerance for all kinds of legally expressed invective, it was inevitable that the matter of Scientology would find its way to the House of Commons. In February of 1966, the Minister of Health, Mr. Kenneth Robinson, answered some very general questions put to him regarding Scientology. In March of 1967 the debate resumed, this time much more heatedly. Peter Hordern, Conservative M.P. from Horsham, rose to bring to the attention of the House the case of one of his constituents, an emotionally disturbed young girl who became associated with Scientology only to end up under medical supervision. Hordern related the findings of the Board of Inquiry in Australia and ended by requesting that a full inquiry be made in the United Kingdom.
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In response the Minister of Health acknowledged his personal concern with the question, then discussed "whether the scientologists in England carry out the same practices as did their counterparts in Australia and, if so, whether we should take the same view of them as did the state of Victoria?
"This leads to the crucial question: to what can we reasonably take objection in Scientology," he continued. "For a Minister of Health, the overriding consideration must be the effect of these practices on mental health. Here, one must distinguish between what the leaders of the cult currently claim and what they have until recently professed and, in my judgment, still perform."
Mr. Robinson went on to consider whether or not Scientology attempts to heal, citing a letter Hubbard had written the Minister of Health disclaiming any such practices. Pointing out that there is nothing illegal occurring when unskilled people offer techniques through which they intend to relieve or remove mental troubles, because no claims for medical skills are made, he stated that there was no need for an inquiry because it was quite clear to him that Scientology was potentially harmful. Yet he closed by saying he hesitated to suggest that Scientology be prohibited. "My present view," he stated, "is that this would not be the right course to take, and I say this for several reasons. Legislation would certainly be necessary to achieve prohibition because, as I have said, medically unqualified people are within the law in offering or providing treatment with certain very limited exceptions. We would all, I believe, be reluctant to contemplate legislation - which would, on the Victoria pattern, almost inevitably have to range considerably beyond its immediate object if it were to be effective - unless the case for it were overwhelming. We are not in that position - at any rate, not yet."
East Grinstead, whose inhabitants their M.P. had said were seriously disturbed by Scientology, had been the center of all the unrest. With Saint Hill Manor just over the hill, the people
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of the village found themselves inundated with growing numbers of scientologists from all over the world, particularly from the United States and Australia. It was not long before HASI, Ltd., bought a hotel and many private houses and began to buy up and run some of the private businesses. Hubbard was a director of two local companies and his wife, Mary Sue, was a director of five, one with a reported nominal capital of L300,000 sterling. Early in June of 1968, in retaliation for criticism in the town, Saint Hill issued a proclamation that twenty-two of the town's businesses, including the local pub, the Rose & Crown, were off limits.
Finally, on July 25, 1968, in Written Answers in the House of Commons, Health Minister Robinson announced that certain actions would be taken with regard to Scientology:
a) The Hubbard College of Scientology and all other scientology establishments, will no longer be accepted as educational establishments for the purposes of Home Office policy on the admission and subsequent control of foreign nationals;
b) Foreign nationals arriving at United Kingdom ports who intend to proceed to scientology establishments will no longer be eligible for admission as students;
e) Foreign nationals who are already in the United Kingdom, for example as visitors, will not be granted student status for the purpose of attending a scientology establishment;
d) Foreign nationals already in the United Kingdom for study at a scientology establishment will not be granted extensions of stay to continue these studies;
e) Work permits and employment vouchers will not be issued to foreign nationalists (or Commonwealth citizens) for work at a scientology establishment;
f) Work permits already issued to foreign nationals for work at a scientology establishment will not be extended.
In August, the Home Office barred 800 Scientologists from entering England to attend a Scientology congress. In October, Mr. Alexander Lyons, M.P. from York, asked the Home Secretary how many persons had been denied entry into England because they were Scientologists. Mr. Lyon wanted to know
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under what powers the immigration officers had acted if entry had been refused. Mr. Callaghan, in written reply, said that no one had been refused admission on the sole ground that "he was a scientologist; but since July 25, 104 foreign nationals intending to study at Scientology establishments have been refused leave to land under the Aliens order, 1953." It was clear that despite continuing apprehension regarding Scientology and its activities at Saint Hill, members of Parliament were equally concerned about actions which had been taken and their relationship to the rights and freedoms of citizens.
In December, Mr. Hordern, the M.P. from Horsham who had raised the question of Scientology in 1967, rose in the House to ask the Secretary of State for Social Services, Mr. Crossman, if he had any further statement to make on the practice of Scientology. Mr. Crossman answered that he had considered either a public inquiry or a white paper, but felt that for the time being, "the right course is to leave things as they are," owing to what he felt was the efficacious results of the publicity attending the activities of the summer. The M.P. from East Grinstead, Mr. Smith, and his colleague from Accrington, Mr. Arthur Davidson, expressed disappointment at this decision. Mr. Crossman answered that his position was predicated on the fact that "action did not take the form of prosecution, but merely forbidding foreign nationals to study and practice Scientology here." It was as if he meant to say that it was all right for the English to harm themselves - if that was in fact what Scientology led to, it was their legal right - and containment seemed the most responsible course of action.
A curious offshoot of all this is that L. Ron Hubbard, because he is an American citizen, is now *persona non grata* in England. This does not seem to disturb him at all. Tracked down recently by a British film team which located the *Apollo* tied up at a tiny North African port, Hubbard blandly stated,
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"In the first place I am not in trouble with the British Government, not even faintly. If I went in today, or tomorrow, through Immigration, they would tip their hats and say, 'How are you, Mr. Hubbard?' as they have been doing for years." Regarding all the criticism of Scientology, he said, "Why do they just fight it and say there's something bad? They never specify what's bad. For instance, right now, they say we're breaking up marriages. Why, that's a lie -" As he said this his intonation lilted, and his voice became full of sweet reason. "As a matter of fact, they're saying that at the moment when you've got this book -" he held up a book to the camera "- which was just about to go on the press: *How to Save Your Marriage*." Hubbard glanced down at the book, still held to the camera, his whole attitude one bordering on disbelief that Scientology could be causing so much of an uproar back in England. When asked about rumors that he had amassed several million dollars in Swiss bank accounts, Hubbard answered that "one tends to overlook the fact that all during the thirties, and actually during the late forties, I was a highly successful writer, and a great many properties and so on accumulated during that period of time. The amounts of money in Switzerland are minimal. I don't have Swiss bank accounts; there is a bank account in Switzerland. I don't know how much money is in it, but not very much. While there were very, very large sums that I made when I was very young...." He paused to fix his unseen interviewer with a level stare as I, watching his admirably smooth performance, wondered what final saturating generality he would offer to put us all in our places. He said, "Fifteen million published words and a great many successful movies don't make nothing." I wanted to stand up and cheer.
Here he was, twenty years after giving us Dianetics - A.D. 20, he designates this year - and Scientology is shaking people up all over the world: the Australians have banned it in some of their states, the British are going to "look into it" with what
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I am sure will ceremonial probity, Americans are wondering why their kids are flocking to it, and a tiny fleet of ships is throwing a chill over various Mediterranean port authorities as it heaves into view. I remembered the girl I had spoken with at the Scientology Congress, Mary-Lou, and her meaningless statistic that Scientology had grown 500 percent over a very few months. I decided to look into Scientology's growth more closely.
It was already clear to me that Scientology's expansion primarily encompasses the English-speaking world, with twenty-six city centers now spread across England, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Rhodesia. Scientology claims equal success in other countries, but at the present time only three non-English-speaking centers are active, in France, Denmark, and Sweden. The obvious problem for non-English-speaking nationals would be one of language, although Scandinavians study English at school and from my own experience seldom seem at a disadvantage when speaking the language. Scientology hotly disputes the primacy of English, saying that its texts, at least most of them, translate freely and directly into any foreign tongue. One of Hubbard's books, *Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought*, carries a note at the end of the introduction, which reads: "This text has been organized so that a complete translation of all of it will deliver without interruption or destructive change the basics of Scientology into non-English tongues." I think it's an overly ambitious promise. While Scientology's rampant neologism was part and parcel of making it all valid for people absorbing the meaning of *preclear*, "*thetan*," and "*engram*," the full Hubbardian *meaning* of these and all his other words simply would not translate with ease. A second equally serious consideration for foreigners is that processing and training in a local organization can only be carried up to a certain level. Beyond it, scientologists must go either to Saint Hill, in England - now become difficult, although I've heard Englishmen
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say that someone determined to get into the country wouldn't really have much trouble - or to Los Angeles. When it became apparent that a scientologist determined to achieve the state of *clear* would have at least some difficulty in getting into England, Scientology set up an advanced organization in Los Angeles, offering both the highly regarded Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, as well as the higher Grades of Release unavailable locally. Hubbard also directed the formation of an Advanced Organization, staffed by members of his elite "Sea Org," to take students beyond the state of *clear* towards becoming that absolute perfection, an *operating thetan*.
I found additional clues as to how many people are in Scientology in figures printed in recent issues of *The Auditor*, Scientology's monthly journal. Discussing the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, it said that since its inception in April of 1961, 614 students had completed the course, 2001 people have achieved the state of *clear*, and 21,307 have achieved Release. These figures are just for Saint Hill in England, and appear to increase at the rate of 50 persons a month. If you figure that *clear* is the culmination of some twelve grades of advancement, and you allow for *some* attrition, you begin to get some idea of the size of this thing. Bob Thomas, when I talked to him at his New York office, graciously tried to pin it down more precisely. On a worldwide basis, he conservatively estimated, "well over a million people" are now involved, with a central organization of about 100,000 of what he called "card-carrying members." He told me that between one and two hundred new people encounter Scientology for the first time each week in New York alone, and between 50 to 75 percent of them go on to take at least the most elementary course offered, the Communications Course.
We got into the whole subject of costs, either for Scientology processing by itself, or for both it and Scientology training, and how much you might have to lay out to achieve that state of Total Freedom: *clear*. Thomas compared it to the
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price tag on a medium-priced car. Looking through one of Scientology's brochures, I found the figure broken down more or less as follows: $750 to achieve the first Grades of Release which are called 0 through IV; $500 to take the Dianetics Auditor's Course; $1,200 to take the Power Grade, Grade V-VA; $775 to take Grade VI, referred to as SOLO because you do it alone; and $800 for Grade VII, *clear*. Power Processing, Grade V-VA, is also offered as a twenty-five-hour intensive, five daily sessions of five hours each at an overall cost of $500, with a minimum of two intensives required. The Saint Hill Special Briefing Course costs $775. At a certain level of processing and training, students are urged to own their own E-Meter, the latest model of which is the Hubbard Mark V E-Meter, sold for $140. Ever time I get a new brochure or newsletter from Scientology, I see a new package plan being offered. On something called Triple Flow Grades, people are encouraged to prepay and get a 5 percent discount.
On the training side, there is now a package to take you to Level IV on the Dianetics Auditor's Course for $1,235 - 5 percent off the usual $1,300 if you pay in advance. There are all kinds of incentive plans offering discounts which range from 5 percent to 50 percent on courses and processes, all of the discounts contingent on your making a long-term commitment - usually by written contract - to follow the upward path of scientological advancement. A free six-month membership in HASI offers a straight 20 percent discount on all Scientology books which normally cost over $1.25, as well as on tapes, records, E-Meters, and other miscellaneous items available from Scientology bookstores, one of which is located in every Scientology office throughout the world. In addition to two pamphlets which sell for 50 cents, there are now eleven books available at $1.25 each, nine hooks selling for $2.00 each, eleven books selling for $3.00 each, three - among them the original Dianetics text - selling for $5.00, and two selling for $7.00. With only one exception, something called *Miracles for
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Breakfast*, written by Ruth Minshull, the majority of the books - those which aren't anonymously authored - are written by L. Ron Hubbard. A steady flow of mailings which I - and everybody else in or out of Scientology who happens to be on the mailing lists - received, told me that the books are available and that the bookstore officer was my "terminal for information you may have concerning books." Scientology recently offered an extension course, to be taken at home, for $5.00, consisting of what were called Four Lesson Tablets - "each containing 20 lessons, 8 questions each," each lesson pertaining to one of four books, available at a total cost of $16.25. In addition to the books, scientologists can also buy magazines, charts, the Creed of the Church of Scientology ($.50), a photograph of L. Ron Hubbard - 12" x 15" - a "Study Self-Por-trait," pins, car badges, scarves, and ties. Tapes are available at $30 per roll, and a record called "Dianetics Modernized for Scientology Students Practice" which includes Hubbard's personally written instructions costs $15.00. With all these materials, I thought time and time again, is it any wonder that people's immersion in Scientology is total and absolute?
A pertinent curiosity is the picture featured on some of the paperback books which shows an old man, a sad-eyed, white-haired, bearded fellow with unusually flared nostrils. I asked Bob Thomas whether this figure represented anything. "A symbol of knowledge," he said, "and as a symbol it has an impact." I looked again at one of the books, *Introduction to Scientology Ethics*, when I got home. The old man is sitting behind a desk, his arms resting on it. His face is weary, but there was a kind of...*timelessness* about it. His robes are black and his left hand is lying lightly on his right. The back of his chair is high and square. He looks like a judge. A wise, stern judge who will brook no nonsense. As I looked at him, I couldn't help remembering a series of stories Hubbard had written many years ago for *Astounding Science Fiction*, using the pen name Rene Lafayette. The stories were called *Soldiers
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of Light* and told of a time in the future when medicine has become so superior and purified that its practitioners are something akin to superbeings, "soldiers of light." Lafayette's - or Hubbard's - hero in these stories was Old "Doc" Methuselah, a man of enormous insight and sagacity, who, as his name implied, is a thousand years old and blessed with a wisdom accumulated over those centuries.
In discussing the various prices, Minister Thomas was careful to explain that all course costs are on a money-back guarantee and are established by "the Organization." The base rate, if one can call it that, is "$150 per grade of release...achieved to the satisfaction of the client," though private practitioners like him have the right to charge more, based, he was not loath to suggest, on what the traffic might bear. "The charge is for a particular result," he explained almost loftily. "In my career I've only had one person who asked for his money back, and I gave it to him."
There is, Thomas went on, "no legal requirement by World-Wide to be franchised. You don't have to be a franchised auditor to be a professional, but most professional auditors desire to be franchised because of the administrative assistance and advices that are given. The requirements are very stringent. You've got to adhere to the policies of Scientology and the ethical codes of Scientology. A professional auditor who is not franchised does not work directly with the organization," but is still "bound by certain codes of ethics." As for the 10 percent which goes to HCO (WW), a professional, nonfranchised auditor may or may not pay it. As Thomas explained, "it's up to them."
Some cities in the U.S., like Chicago, do not have incorporated Scientology churches or organizations. The reason was explained to me by Jack Horner. "An auditor," he said, "can operate under a franchise agreement as long as he doesn't get too big. He gives ten percent of his gross to the organization. That's fair. He's allowed to teach very rudimentary courses.
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He operates independently. So this means that an auditor working alone can make anywhere from nothing up to $25,000 a year. This is why the auditors in Chicago don't work in the organization, because the minute you go to work in an organization you go on their so-called Unit System, and this can mean anything from $30 a week, to a top executive who might get $150. The branch office wouldn't be yours any more; it belongs to Hubbard."
I asked Bob Thomas about Hubbard's activities on the *Apollo*, now that he has avowedly severed his connections with the administrative operation of Scientology around the world. "It's like a retreat," Thomas explained, meaning Hubbard's floating domicile, "for advanced Scientologists. Mr. Hubbard is no longer on the board of directors of any of the organizations. He has relinquished everything but being titular head of Scientology," though he "still contributes any technical advances by virtue of research now going on."
Hubbard has, it is true, divested himself of his directorship of the various HASI's and churches, but he is still head of HCO (WW), and, according to Thomas, "ten percent is paid to World-Wide for research, and communications."
Exactly what this research is Hubbard himself explained to the persistent British film crew which had located him and his flagship. "I am studying ancient civilizations," he said, "trying to find out what happened to them, finding out why they went into a decline, why they died." As to his relationship to Scientology today, Hubbard blithely said, "Let's get my relationship to this completely straight: I am the writer of the textbooks of Scientology." Which is nonsense. Hubbard's hand is evident in almost everything happening in Scientology today. Any doubts I might have had were dispelled early this year when I received a "loyalty petition" issued by the Committee For Democratic Mental Practices of the N.A.A.P., P.O. Box 380, New York, N.Y. 10024. Twelve years after his ridiculous "loyalty oath" which he mailed out to psychologists, psychiatrists,
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psychoanalysts, and "ministers of various denominations who engage in mental practice," here was that old National Academy of American Psychology sending out this incredible petition which begins: 'It is not generally appreciated in the United States that the field of mental healing could be used by a foreign power to undermine our democratic system of government." What follows is a rhetorical treatise on how malpractice in the menial sciences is being used under our very noses to subvert...you name it: individuals, organizations, the whole country! The petition to be tendered Congress states "that every person engaged in the treatment of mental illness, including psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists in the United States and its protectorates, shall solumnly [sic] declare before any Justice of the Peace that he is not a member of any movement or party, nor is he associated with, for fee or reward, any foreign power or organization which has as its aim the undermining or subversion of the Constitution or elected government of the United States of America." It is a sickening piece of tripe and smells of that age-old give-away: somebody or something running scared.
A much more personal glimpse of what Hubbard is up to was given by Nick Robinson, a young Englishman who had spent months aboard the *Royal Scot Man* and finally left, bitterly disillusioned. Speaking in a slightly hesitant, carefully pointed manner, he told the British film team whose work I was able to screen, that Hubbard "really is in charge, all the way. He used to use Telexes every day from his organizations all over the world, especially Saint Hill in England. And he sends Telexes to Saint Hill, gives them instructions and so on and so on. So he really is involved. On board the ship he's a kind of Jesus Christ-cum-Buddha all rolled into one. His busts and photographs are everywhere. He just is God."