Chapter 3

The Propaganda of Scientology -- "Playing for Blood..."

Douglas Hyde, the author quoted above, was for twenty years a dedicated Communist and the news editor of the London edition of the Daily Worker, a Communist newspaper.

Becoming disillusioned with the inconsistencies which he saw between the stated ideology of the Communist Party and the translation of that ideology into actual practice, Hyde rejected the Party, resigned his job, and eventually became converted to the Catholic Church. In 1966, he delivered a series of lectures to a convocation of Catholic leaders from at least five continents, and the book Dedication and Leadership consists of the transcripts of those lectures.

In the very first lecture, Hyde states:

If you ask me what is the distinguishing mark of the Communist, what it is that Communists most outstandingly have in common, I would say ... that beyond any shadow of doubt it is their idealism, their zeal, dedication, devotion to their cause and willingness to sacrifice.... The vast majority of the Communists I have met anywhere conform to this pattern. (1)

This same quote is equally true if it is read with the word "Scientologist" substituted for the word "Communist." This is also true of the following paragraph from the same lecture:

Youth is a period of idealism. The Communists [Scientologists] attract young people by appealing directly to that idealism. Too often, others have failed either to appeal to it or to use it and they are the losers as a consequence. We have no cause to complain if, having neglected the idealism of youth, we see others come along, take it, use it and harness it to their cause -- and against our own. (2)

Nowhere is there a group of predominantly young people more idealistic, more dedicated, more fervently devoted to their cause than in Scientology. Scientologists give their all -- their time, their energy, their money and assets, and even their children -- to the cause, frequently living in a manner that would seem comfortably familiar to, for example, a first-century Christian.

The fanatic dedication of the Scientologist does not come about by accident. It is carefully and systematically inculcated by the propaganda of Scientology, to which both the novice and seasoned Scientologist are exposed on a daily basis. Essential, therefore, to understanding both Scientology and the Scientologist is an examination of the propaganda, contained in the millions of words of Hubbard on tape recordings and in printed "bulletins" listened to or read daily by the Scientologist.

A distinction is made here between the propaganda of Scientology and that of Dianetics. In Dianetics, the new convert is led to believe in cures for an endless array of physical maladies, from asthma to allergies to cancer, and even to believe that through Dianetic and Scientology auditing there will be an exemption from death itself. It is fabled that through auditing, the Scientologist of advanced age will be able to simply "drop the body" at will, and without pain.

But it is through the propaganda of Scientology, separate from the sub-"science" of Dianetics, that the true programming of the Scientologist takes place, and it takes place as follows.

Upon entry into Scientology, the initiate is given a packet of written materials consisting of a series of printed "bulletins" written by Hubbard and serving as an introduction into the sect.

One of the first bulletins read by the initiate is the one called The Aims of Scientology. This bulletin is important because it delivers the very first message to the newcomer, the message that Scientology is A Good Thing:

A civilization without insanity, without criminals, and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where Man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.

First announced to an enturbulated world fifteen years ago, these aims are well within the grasp of our technology.

Non-political in nature, Scientology welcomes any individual of any creed, race or nation.

We seek no revolution. We seek only evolution to higher states of being for the individual and for Society.

We are achieving our aims.

After endless millennia of ignorance about himself, his mind and the Universe, a breakthrough has been made for Man.

Other efforts Man has made have been surpassed.

The combined truths of fifty Thousand years of thinking men, distilled and amplified by new discoveries about Man, have made for this success.

We welcome you to Scientology. We only expect of you your help in achieving our aims and helping others. We expect you to be helped.

Scientology is the most vital movement on Earth today.

In a turbulent world, the job is not easy. But then, if it were, we wouldn't have to be doing it.

We respect Man and believe he is worthy of help. We respect you and believe you, too, can help.

Scientology does not owe its help. We have done nothing to cause us to propitiate. Had we done so, we would not now be bright enough to do what we are doing.

Man suspects all offers of help. He has often been betrayed, his confidence shattered. Too frequently he has given his trust and been betrayed. We may err, for we build a world with broken straws. But we will never betray your faith in us so long as you are one of us.

The sun never sets on Scientology.

And may a new day dawn on you, for those you love and for Man.

Our aims are simple, if great.

And we will succeed, and are succeeding at each new revolution of the Earth.

Your help is acceptable to us.

Our help is yours.

-- L. Ron Hubbard Founder

Similarly, in the next bulletin the newcomer to Scientology will read, called My Philosophy, he or she receives the message that the Founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, is a Good and Wise Man:

The first principle of my own philosophy is that wisdom is meant for anyone who wishes to reach for it. It is the servant of the commoner and king alike and should never be regarded with awe....

The second principle of my own philosophy is that it must be capable of being applied....

The third principle is that any philosophic knowledge is only valuable or true if it works....

A philosophy can only be a route to knowledge. It cannot be crammed down one's throat. If one has a route, he can then find what is true for him. And that is Scientology.

Know Thyself ... and the truth shall set you free....

I like to help others and count it as my greatest pleasure in life to see a person free himself of the shadows which darken his days....

I have seen much human misery. As a very young man I wandered through Asia and saw the agony and misery of overpopulated and underdeveloped lands. I have seen people uncaring and stepping over dying men in the streets. I have seen children less than rags and bones. And amongst this poverty and degradation I found holy places where wisdom was great, but where it was carefully hidden and given out only as superstition. Later, in Western universities, I saw Man obsessed with materiality and with all his cunning, I saw him hide what little wisdom he really had in forbidding halls and make it inaccessible to the common and less favored man. I have been through a terrible war and saw its terror and pain uneased by a single word of decency or humanity.

I have lived no cloistered life and hold in contempt the wise man who has not lived and the scholar who will not share.

There have been many wiser men than I, but few have traveled as much road.

I have seen life from the top down and the bottom up. I know how it looks both ways. And I know there is wisdom and that there is hope.

But I have never seen wisdom do any good kept to oneself, and as I like to see others happy, and as I find the vast majority of the people can and do understand, I will keep on writing and working and teaching so long as I exist.

For I know no man who has any monopoly upon the wisdom of this universe. It belongs to those who can use it to help themselves and others.

If things were a little better known and understood, we would all lead happier lives.

And there is a way to know them and there is a way to freedom.

The old must give way to the new, falsehood must become exposed by truth, and truth, though fought, always in the end prevails.

-- L. Ron Hubbard

In all of the propaganda of Scientology, four lessons predominate:

1. That there is a problem.
2. That there is a solution to the problem.
3. That the solution can only be found in Scientology.
4. What will happen if the problem is not solved.

The first problem posed by Hubbard is the imminent danger of nuclear war. And it is only Scientology that has the potential to thwart this danger:

We are the only people and the only organizations on Earth which have the technology and the ambition to attempt a clarification of situations which in other hands are considered entirely out of control, to wit, the atomic bomb and the decay and confusion of central governments.

-- from Purpose, by L. Ron Hubbard

The use or neglect of this material (Scientology) may well determine the use or neglect of the atomic bomb by Man.... In the same period in history, two of the most sweeping forces Man has known have come to fruition: a knowledge of himself and others with Scientology, and a means of destroying himself and all others by atomic fission. Which force wins depends in a large measure on your use of Scientology.

The mission of Scientology is not conquest -- it is civilization. It is a war upon stupidity, the stupidity which leads us to the Last War of All.

As your associates, their homes, their children, their possessions and all their future lie ending in a radioactive street, there won't be time to wish we'd worked harder, been less easily dissuaded from pressing our arguments....

There is not much Earth time in which to distribute this knowledge. This is the solution to our barbarism out of which we would lose all.... It is time Man grew up. This is what we have in mind. For there can be but weeping in the night where ignorance, factionalism, hatred and exploitation are served by the most ferocious and final weapon of all -- the H-bomb.

With man now equipped with weapons sufficient to destroy all mankind on Earth, the emergence of a new science capable of handling man is vital. Scientology is such a science.... With Scientology man can prevent insanity, criminality and war.... The primary race of Earth is not between one nation and another today. The only race that matters at this moment is the one being run between Scientology and the atomic bomb. The history of man, as has been said by well-known authorities, may well depend upon which one wins.

-- from Fundamentals of Thought, by L. Ron Hubbard

The second problem posed by Hubbard is that mankind is caught in a trap, and that he has been in this trap for millions of years during which he has been recycling back to earth through an endless series of lifetimes. It is only through Scientology auditing that he can escape this trap:

In fifty thousand years of history on this planet alone, Man never evolved a workable system. It is doubtful if, in foreseeable history, he will ever evolve another.

Man is caught in a huge and complex labyrinth. To get out of it requires that he follow the closely taped path of Scientology.

Scientology will take him out of the labyrinth. But only if he follows the exact markings in the tunnels.

It has taken me a third of a century in this lifetime to tape this route out.

-- from Safeguarding Technology, by L. Ron Hubbard

We're free men and women -- probably the last free men and women on Earth.... If we don't do a good job now we may never get another chance.

So we have an organization, we have a chance.

That's more than we had last time night's curtain began to fall on freedom.

An organization such as ours is our best chance to get the most done. So we're doing it!

-- from Your Post, by L. Ron Hubbard

Is there a way out?

Yes there is.

We have it in Scientology now. I have found it and charted it. I know exactly how to open the gate.

-- from Escape, by L. Ron Hubbard

The whole agonized future of this planet, every Man, Woman and Child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depends on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.

-- from Keeping Scientology Working, by L. Ron Hubbard

The Scientologist is trained to believe that the salvation of mankind can only be achieved by the "science" of Scientology. That Scientology supersedes any other mental health technology. And that there is no other hope:

In all the broad universe there is no other hope for man than ourselves.

-- from Ron's Journal 1967, by L. Ron Hubbard

Let us face the reality of this thing. The world confronts several crises. Man's inhumanity to Man is gaining monuments daily. The time to bring a chaos under control is before it is well begun. We're slightly late as it is. Brutally, there is no other organization on Earth that can slow these down. Factually there is no other know-how on Earth that can plumb the problems of Man. So if we don't want all of us to be sitting amongst the charred embers, we had better get busy.

-- from The Eighteenth A.C.C., by L. Ron Hubbard

We are the first group on earth that knew what they were talking about. All right, sail in. The world's ours. Own it.

-- from The World Is Ours, by L. Ron Hubbard

Auditors have since the first session of Scientology been the only individuals on this planet in this universe capable of freeing Man.

-- from Auditors, by L. Ron Hubbard

(Scientology) is the only valid and fully tested mental process which Man has.

-- from The Road Up, by L. Ron Hubbard

Scientology is a science of life. It is the first entirely Western effort to understand life. All earlier efforts came from Asia or Eastern Europe. And they failed.... Scientology is something new under the sun, but young as it is, it is still the only completely and thoroughly tested and validated science of existence.

-- from The Problems of Work, by L. Ron Hubbard

Scientology, in less than a decade, has become the world's primary study of Man and the mind and has today more offices and practitioners than all other Nineteenth Century practices combined. Thus we must learn to bury the past of mental healing and look forward to our better day, the day of Scientology and new hope, the day of help without threat or harm, the day of a new and better civilization, born with the birth of a better understanding of Man.

-- from What is Scientology, by L. Ron Hubbard

Through their training, Scientologists learn that they are the true elite in this world, and that one cannot be a good Scientologist unless he or she is tough and dedicated.

We're the elite of Planet Earth,...

-- from Current Planning, by L. Ron Hubbard

When somebody enrolls [in Scientology], consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe -- never permit an "open-minded" approach. If they're going to quit let them quit fast. If they enrolled, they're aboard, and if they're aboard, they're here on the same terms as the rest of us -- win or die in the attempt. Never let them be half-minded about being Scientologists. The finest organizations in history have been tough, dedicated organizations... It's a tough universe. The social veneer makes it seem mild. But only the tigers survive -- and even they have a hard time. We'll survive because we are tough and are dedicated. When we do instruct somebody properly he becomes more and more tiger. When we instruct half-mindedly and are afraid to offend, scared to enforce, we don't make students into good Scientologists and that lets everybody down. When Mrs. Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare and she'll win and we'll all win. Humor her and we all die a little.

-- from Keeping Scientology Working, by L. Ron Hubbard

Douglas Hyde, Communist turned Catholic, lists as one of the primary reasons for the success of Communist teaching the fact that the subject is always presented in global terms. That there is a global battle going on with "suffering, sweating, toiling humanity" on one side and with the new Communist Man on the other.

Scientology is also presented to believers in global terms as "The Road to Total Freedom" and as "The Only Hope for Mankind." The goal of every Scientologist is nothing less than to "Clear the planet," to ensure the salvation of every person on earth through the attainment of the Scientology state of "Clear."

Salvation of mankind through Scientology is an endeavor of vital importance and with global implications.

We're playing for blood, the stake is EARTH.

-- from Policy Letter of 7 Nov 1962 of L. Ron Hubbard

The purpose of the Field Staff Member [a Scientologist] is:

To help LRH [Hubbard] contact, handle, salvage and bring understanding to individuals and thus the peoples of Earth.

-- from Field Auditors, by L. Ron Hubbard

Now, without further discourse, let's get hot. This is Scientology -- the freedom for Man. Let it be known.

-- from The Public Divisions, by L. Ron Hubbard

The Valuable Final Products of a Scientologist are:

DISSEMINATED KNOWLEDGE

PURCHASED BOOKS

ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

A CLEARED PLANET

-- from Org Board Division Six, by L. Ron Hubbard

The witch and the pot; the test tube and the scope; the cell and the club; the textbook and the lies -- Control! Control them or we die! Beat them or they win! Starve them or we shrink. We are afraid! afraid! afraid! -- they said in that old age we killed.

Freedom becks and we now laughing at their lies, went free.

Scientology -- The Road Sign Out.

We are the Free People. We LIVE! We're FREE!

-- from We Are the Free People, by L. Ron Hubbard

My purpose is to bring a barbarism out of the mud it thinks conceived it and to form here on Earth a civilization based on human understanding, not violence.

That's a big purpose. A broad field. A star-high goal.

But I think it's your purpose, too.

-- from How We Work on the Third Dynamic, by L. Ron Hubbard

We are the prime movers in this, the new age. Forget the old. Face up to what will come. And let the dead yesterdays bury the philosophy of Authority and Capital Gains and Communist psychology cults. We're no longer tied.

The eons march on.... Perhaps, this time, due to our efforts, a humanitarian world can exist. We, the Prophets of the Morrow, know the way.

-- from Scientology: The Philosophy of a New Age, by L. Ron Hubbard

There is no greater game in the Universe than Scientology, for it is the only game in which everybody wins.

-- from Contests and Prizes, by L. Ron Hubbard

We are the people who are ending the cycle of homo sapiens and starting the cycle of a good earth.

There is no barrier on our path except those we make ourselves.

Our ability belongs to all worlds everywhere.

-- from What Is Scientology, by L. Ron Hubbard

The excerpts given in this chapter are only a small sampling of the propaganda to which a Scientologist is exposed on a daily basis. The fact that exposure to such propaganda comes immediately after one has done a series of hypnotic, mind-numbing drills known as "training routines" serves only to render the propaganda more deeply ingrained and more ferociously grasped by the Scientologist.

These beliefs, instilled into the mind of a Scientologist through endless hours of listening to the rambling tape recorded lectures of Hubbard or through the volumes of printed bulletins which are required reading on the many "courses" or classes in Scientology, soon take precedence over any prior system of beliefs.

Within a relatively short time, Scientology is able to produce a fully programmed, doctrine espousing, bulletin believing and fanatic Scientologist, whose mind is lost behind the steely trap of cult programming, impervious to the logic and pleadings of well-intentioned family or friends.

Is there such a thing as thought control? Is it really possible for a mind to be brought under the full control of another?

Ask any ex-Scientologist. Or a fugitive from any cult, for that matter.

They will tell you that the answer is, incontrovertibly, yes. Our minds are programmed from birth by parents, teachers, friends, books, movies, commercials on radio and television, etc. But nowhere are the results of programming more insidious than in a cult such as Scientology.

Parents desperate to "rescue" their child from the grasp of a mind-bending cult such as Scientology find themselves impotent in the face of a legal system without meaningful precedents in the grey area of mind control. It is illegal for them to kidnap their child in order to deprogram the twisted cult thinking. The fact that the child has already been kidnapped, mentally, by the cult is not, legally, a factor.

Psychological kidnapping is not a crime.

Perhaps the only remedy for those still in relative possession of their critical faculties is a warning:

Cherish your mind and guard it well. And beware the Hubbards of the world who seek to capture and harness your mind for their own predatory purposes.

But for thousands of young people in this country and others, it is already too late.

Notes

1. Hyde, p. 15
2. Hyde, p. 17