The Purpose of a Lawsuit is to Harass

I have a set of red volumes published in 1991. Volume III covers the years 1955-56. On pp. 40-66 is reprinted a lengthy article called "The Scientologist, a Manual on the Dissemination of Material." This article first appeared in "Ability, the Magazine of DIANETICS and SCIENTOLOGY from Phoenix, Arizona", Major Issue 1, published "circa mid-March 1955". The version of the article that appears in the 1991 red volumes contains this famous quote:

The DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE. The only way to defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that then you will lose every battle you are ever in engaged in...

However, the 1991 version does not contain this even more famous quote from the same article:

The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly.

What Hubbard was discussing in this passage was the measures that can be taken to prevent people from using Scientology materials outside the church, e.g., to deliver unapproved auditing services. Hubbard claims the public needs to be protected from incompetent practitioners, but his real concern was loss of income, and loss of control over the Dianetics and Scientology movement, as had previously occurred in New Jersey.

Why was the ``purpose of the suit'' quote deleted? The passage has caused much bad publicity for Scientology in the past. The unexpurgated version of that section of the article was filed as Exhibit G in the Fishman Declaration (reproduced below). The nastiest bits were bracketed in the filed version, so the court could see the evidence that Scientology's aggressively litigious nature was part of its official doctrine.

Altering Hubbard's writing is one of the highest crimes in Scientology. But the cult routinely edits his work by discovering that an offending passage was actually written by some nameless "suppressive person" and inserted somehow into Hubbard's text prior to publication, usually as part of a "plot to destroy Scientology." There must have been an awful of lot of these suppressive persons working in the Hubbard Communications Office, because there have been a lot of changes over the years, but it seems these persons only get discovered when there is inconvenient text that needs to be disposed of.

This article, still odious despite the minor deletion, has been cited in various legal filings over the years, including the Fishman Declaration, as "Magazine articles on level 0 checksheet." Here's an explanation of where this mis-identification comes from. Each Scientology course begins with a checksheet that lists the materials to be read and the exercises to be done on that course, in the order in which they are to be undertaken. "Level 0" is the first level of the academy course, i.e., the first level of auditor training. In 1968, the Hubbard College of Scientology, a branch of the Church of Scientology of California, published a 100 page booklet called "Magazine Articles on Level 0 Checksheet" that contained eight articles from Ability magazine and the Journal of Scientology. This booklet was apparently part of the auditor curriculum at one time, but it does not appear at all in more recent (circa 1990) versions of the academy levels, at least in the checksheets I've examined. According to Professor Steven Kent of the University of Alberta, who has studied the Scientology cult since 1986, "This item is required reading in the 1991 'Department of Special Affairs, Investigations Officer, Full Hat' course.

Elsewhere in this same magazine article, Hubbard discusses what to do if a Scientologist encounters legal troubles. Again, an aggressive, even vicious response is urged. Is he crazy to be concerned about ``arrest for the practice of Scientology''? I think his concerns about legal trouble were well-founded, but he's distorting the situation in which an arrest would be likely. The practice of the Scientology religion is not illegal. But practicing medicine without a license is. And so is making unjustifiable medical claims in advertising material -- which is precisely what Scientology got into trouble for a decade later, when the FDA seized hundreds of E-meters. Even in this article, despite his worries about legal trouble, Hubbard boldly states that physicians and psychologists cannot cure mental or psychosomatic ills; only Scientologists can do that. He wants to practice medicine and psychotherapy, but he knows it's dangerous to do so openly.

Hubbard's prohibition here against prescribing vitamins is curious, because one of the fundamentals of his Purification Rundown is dangerously high doses of Niacin. Obviously he did not take his own advice. Yet he's so concerned about being charged with illegally practicing medicine that he warns against even recommending diets. Inconsistency is one of his hallmarks, and the alternation within this one document between sweeping claims and paranoid defensiveness is definitely in character.

The SCIENTOLOGY organization exploits every opportunity to hide behind their so called religious status. This posture is epitomized by a SCIENTOLOGY document entitled, Level O Checklist. In the Level O Checklist, instructions are given to SCIENTOLOGY members who are approached by medical doctors while these members are attempting to employ SCIENTOLOGY methods and practices to patients in hospitals and nursing homes. The Instructional Guide states the SCIENTOLOGY member is to claim religious status when approached by a medical doctor if the doctor is disturbed or displeased with the SCIENTOLOGISTS administering medical treatment to the patient. If the SCIENTOLOGY Member is arrested, a lawyer will be provided immediately and a suit is to be instituted in excess of $100,000 against the doctor and anyone else that it might be advantageous to sue for violating the SCIENTOLOGIST'S first amendment rights in practicing religion on the patient.

Fishman Exhibit G

US District Court, Central District of California Fishman Case # 91-6426 HLH (Tx) Continued (Title page no number) MAGAZINE ARTICLES ON LEVEL 0 CHECKSHEET BY L RON HUBBARD (0055)

( Hand bracketed passages in original >> shown in red here.) [[[[ big snip ]]]] As a subdivision of general public to general public we have the problem of the professionals which might consider Scientology to be antipathetic to them, amongst these would be psychologists and medical doctors as well as psychiatrists. These persons are entirely in error when they express the opinion that Scientologists are against -51- (0056)

Missing (illegible) text reads: ``them. Scientology does not consider them sufficiently important to be against. Flour pills or any incantation ...''

Fishman Case No. 91-6426 HLH (tx) continued... (5 or 6 words illegible) ..... -or system will produce in 22 percent, of the public, benefit. Therefore, any practice or art can always achieve 22 per cent recovery in their patients. It is when we better this 22 percent, that we are being efficient. We have no more quarrel with a psychologist that we would have with an Austra- lian witch-doctor. We have no quarrel with a pychiatrist any more that we would quarrel with a barbarian because he has never heard of nuclear physics. As to the medical doctor, we know very well that modern medical practice, having lately outgrown phlebotomy, has come of age to point where is can regulate structure in a most remarkable and admirable way. In Scientology we believe a medical doctore definitely has his role in a society just as an engineer has his role in civil government. We believe that a medical doctor should perform emergency operations such as those made necessary by accidents; that he should perform orthopeadics; that he should deliver babies; that he should have charge of the administration of drugs; that his use of antibiotics is beneficial; and that wherever he immediately and curatively addresses structure his is of use in a community. The only place we would limit a medical doctor is in the field of treatment of psychosomatic medicine, where he has ad- mittedly and continously failed, and the only thing we would ask a medical doctor to change about his practice is to stop taking money for things he knows he cannot cure, i.e., spiritual, mental, psycho- somatic, and social ills. [[[[ snip ]]]] Should you ever be arrested for practicing Scientology, treating people, make very sure, long before the time somes, that you have never used drugs or surgery, and that you have never prescibed a diet, or vitamins, and when that time might come, make very sure that you immediately and instantly, within two or three hours after your receipt of the warrant, have served upon the signer of the warrant, a personal civil suit for $100,000.00 damages for having caused the arrest of a Man of God going about his business in his proper profession, and for having brought about embarrasing pub- licity and molestation. place the suit and WIRE THE HASI IMMEDIATELY. Make the whole interest during the entire time of such an unfortunate occurance the fact that the signer of such a warrant, who would ordinarily be a medical doctor in charge of the medical department of some city, had dared fly in the teth of religion. And we use what is necessary of the earlier passage above to drive the point home. DO NOT simply fall back out of comm- munication if you are attacked, but attack, much more forcefully and artfully and arduosly. And if you are foolish enough to have an attorney who tells you not to sue, immediately dismiss him and get an attorney who will sue. Or, if no attorney will sue, simply have an HASI suit form filled out and present it yourself to the county clerk in the court of the area in which your case has come up. IN ALL SUCH CASES OR ARREST FOR THE PRACTICE OF SCIENTOLOGY, THE HASI WILL SEND A REPRESENTA- TIVE AT ONCE, BUT DO NOT WAIT FOR HIS ARRIVAL TO PLACE THIS SUIT. THE SUIT MUST ALREADY HAVE BEEN FILED WHEN THE HASI ATTORNEY ARRIVES. -53- (0057)

In other words, do not, at any moment leave this act unpunished, for, if you do you are harming all other Scientologists in the area. When you are attacked it is your responsiblity then to secure from further attack not only yourself but all those who work with you. Cause blue flame to dance over the court house roof until everybody has apologized profusely for having dared to become so adventurous as to arrest a Scientologist who, as a minsietr of the church, was going about his regular duties. As far as the advances of attorneys go that you should not sue, that you should not attack, be aware of the fact that I, myself, in Whichita, Kansas, had the rather interesting experience of discovering that my attorney employed by me and paid by me, had been for some three months in the employ of the people who were attacking me, and that this attorney has collected some insignificant sum of money after I hired him, by going over to the enemy and acting upon their advices. This actually occurred, so beware of attorneys that tell you not to sue. And I call to you attention the situation of any besieged fortress. If that fortress does not make allies, does not send forth patrols to attack and harrass, and does not utilize itself to make the beseiging of it a highly danger- ous occupation, that fortress may, and most often does, fall. >> The DEFENSE of anything is UNTENABLE. The only way to >> defend anything is to ATTACK, and if you ever forget that, then you >> will lose every battle you are ever engaged in, whether it is in terms >> of personal conversation, public debate or court of law. NEVER >> BE INTERESTED IN CHARGES. DO, yourself, much MORE >> CHARGING, and you will WIN. And the public, seeing that you >> won, will then have a communication line to the effect that Scientolo- >> gists WIN. Don't ever let them have any other thought than that >> Scientology takes all its objectives. Another point directly in the interest of keeping the general public to the general public communication line is good odor: it is vitally important that a Scientologist put into action and overtly keep in action Article 4 of the Code: "I pledge myself to punish to the fullest extent of my power anyone misusing or degrading Scientology to harmful ends." The only way you can guarantee that Scientology will not be degraded or misused is to make sure that only those who are trained in it practice it. If you find somebody practicing Scientology who is not qualified, you should give them the oppor- tunity to be formally trained, at their expense, so that they will not abuse and degrade the subject. And you would not take as any substutute for formal training any amount of study. You would therefore delegate to members of the HASI who are not otherwise certified only those processes mentioned below, and would discourage them from using any other processes. More par- ticularly, if you discovered that some group calling itself "precept processing" had set up and established a series of meetings in your area, that you would do all you could to make things interesting for them. In view of the fact that the HASI holds copyrights for all such material, and that a scientific organization of materials -54- can be copyrighted and therefore owned. The least that could be done to to such an area is the placement of a suit against them for using materials of Scientology without authority. Only a member of the HASI or a member of one of the churches affiliated with the HASI has the authority to use this information. The purpose of the suit >> is to harass and discourage rather than win. >> >> The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment >> on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing >> that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his pro- >> fessional decease. If posible, of course, ruin him utterly. [[[[ big snip ]]]] (0058)