Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

The impulse to believe the absurd when presented with the unknowable is called religion. Whether this is wise or unwise is the domain of doctrine. Once you understand someone's doctrine, you understand their rationale for believing the absurd. At that point, it may no longer seem absurd. You can get to both sides of this conondrum from here.

Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:27 am

Chased By Their Church: When You Try to Leave Scientology, They Try to Bring You Back
by Joe Childs and Thomas C. Tobin
Times Staff Writers
October 31, 2009

For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave.
Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor.

One said he was locked in a room and guarded around the clock.

Some who did leave said the church spied on them for years.

Others said that, as a condition for leaving, the church cowed them into signing embellished affidavits that could be used to discredit them if they ever spoke out.

The St. Petersburg Times has interviewed former high-ranking Scientology officials who coordinated the intelligence gathering and supervised the retrieval of staff who left, or "blew."

They say the church, led by David Miscavige, wanted to contain the threat that those who left might reveal secrets of life inside Scientology.

Marty Rathbun, a former church official and confidant of Miscavige, said the leader especially targeted those he had edged aside during his rise to the top or anyone he feared might threaten his position or the church if left alone on the outside.

When the church founder L. Ron Hubbard was in charge, "there were no fences," Rathbun said. "If somebody blew, they blew. It wasn't until these purges started with Miscavige — where he was creating enemies and people … became a threat to him — that we went into this overdrive scenario."

Church spokesman Tommy Davis "categorically denied'' Miscavige knew about or was involved in the pursuit of runaways or spying on former members. He said Rathbun and other former staff are liars, taking their own misdeeds and blaming them on Miscavige and the religion they have forsaken. He said they are trying to undermine Miscavige's leadership even as he presides over unprecedented church growth.

Miscavige "redefines the term 'religious leader,' " Davis said, while some of the Times sources are on the "lunatic fringe'' of anti-Scientology. He said they are the real villains, who Miscavige dismissed for "suborning perjury, obstruction of justice and wasting millions of dollars of parishioner funds.''

He accused the Times of "naked bias" and engaging in tabloid journalism.

"You have a few petty allegations,'' Davis said.

"In fact, all you have is a few people who left a religion after committing destructive acts and are now complaining about what they did while in the church.''

The story of how the church commands and controls its staff is told by the pursuers and the pursued, by those who sent spies and those spied upon, by those who interrogated and those who rode the hot seat. In addition to Rathbun, they include:

• Mike Rinder, who for 25 years oversaw the church's Office of Special Affairs, which handled intelligence, legal and public affairs matters. Rinder and Rathbun said they had private investigators spy on perceived or potential enemies.
• They say they had an operative infiltrate a group of five former Scientology staffers that included the Gillham sisters, Terri and Janis, two of the original four "messengers" who delivered Hubbard's communications. They and other disaffected Scientologists said they were spied on for almost a decade.
• Gary Morehead, the security chief for seven years at the church's international base in the desert east of Los Angeles. He said he helped develop the procedure the church followed to chase and return those who ran, and he brought back at least 75 of them. "I lost count there for awhile.''
• Staffers signed a waiver when they came to work at the base that allowed their mail to be opened, Morehead said. His department opened all of it, including credit card statements and other information that was used to help track runaways.
• Don Jason, for seven years the second-ranking officer at Scientology's spiritual mecca in Clearwater, supervised a staff of 350. He said that after he ran, he turned himself in and ended up locked in his cabin on the church cruise ship, the Freewinds. He said he was held against his will.

And then there's the story of the cook, his wife and the movie stars.

WINTER IN THE ROCKIES

Image
Tom Cruise married Nicole Kidman. The press missed the Christmas Eve nuptials. Cruise's publicist was quoted in a brief item in USA Today published Dec. 27, 1990. "It was very private," Cruise's spokeswoman said, family and a few friends, the honeymoon postponed until Kidman finished filming Billy Bathgate. Cruise's best man was his friend, David Miscavige.

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were to be married on Christmas Eve 1990. The setting: a large rented cabin outside Telluride, Colo., a resort town at the floor of a Rocky Mountain valley.

The couple starred together that summer in Days of Thunder. He was the megastar, she the up-and-coming Australian.

In the desert east of Los Angeles, a small contingent from the Church of Scientology's international base took Cruise's plane to Colorado.

Miscavige would be the actor's best man. Ray Mithoff, a long-time Scientologist who worked closely with Hubbard, would officiate. The church's pastry chef, Pinucio Tisi, would bake the cake. Its five-star chef, Sinar Parman, would prepare the feast.

Parman had been with Scientology's dedicated work force, the Sea Org, for 12 years. He started in 1978, fresh from an apprenticeship at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. He worked as Hubbard's personal chef for two years. (The founder was a meat-and-potatoes man who also enjoyed fish.)

Parman later cooked for celebrity parishioners who visited the church's base camp.

He made chicken noodle soup the way Kirstie Alley's grandmother did, and the actor sent him flowers. John Travolta gave him a carton of Camels for his birthday. Cruise brought him a jacket from the set of Days of Thunder and would hand him Cuban cigars.

For Telluride, Cruise insisted the minister, the baker and the chef bring their wives for the holiday.

Christmas in the Rockies with Tom Cruise? Parman's wife, Jackie Wolff, was beyond excited.

When they married four years earlier, Wolff worked as a personal assistant to Miscavige and his wife, Shelly. She ironed his shirts, prepared the couple's breakfast, lunch and snacks, and woke them each morning.

Now she worked in personnel, recruiting Sea Org members.

Before flying to the wedding, everybody drew names for a gift exchange. Wolff drew Cruise and got him a Hubbard novelette. It cost $50, a week's pay.

Cruise put up the Scientology contingent in a hotel in Telluride, but they spent much of their time at his rented estate. Parman cooked; Wolff hung decorations, tidied rooms and helped in the kitchen.

The Miscaviges let it be known not to give church-related gifts, a nod to the non-Scientologists at the wedding. Wolff went into town and picked a substitute gift, a black ski mask.

At sunset on Christmas Eve, Cruise and Kidman took their vows. The guests sipped Cristal champagne and Parman prepared a holiday spread that included saddle of lamb.

The next afternoon, Wolff and Parman saw police officers standing at the driveway to keep back the paparazzi. Cruise made sure the officers were fed.

The newlyweds took their guests skiing that day. Wolff will always remember seeing Cruise on the slopes, wearing his new black ski mask.

BACK TO WORK

The glow of Telluride faded as Parman and Wolff returned to life at the Scientology base.

Parman says the church reneged on a promise to pay him extra for cooking at the wedding. Parman had been counting on the money. His credit card balance jumped when he bought proper clothes for Telluride, and he charged his own meals. He worried how on a Sea Org salary he would pay down the new debt.

It wasn't the first time he felt he had done a good job, only to be somehow punished. "I was stewing in my own juices, so to speak."

His wife's job in personnel was no better. Supervisors interfered and gave conflicting orders. Many times Wolff worked into the night and slept under her desk.

Parman and Wolff each thought about leaving the church but couldn't tell the other. Such thoughts were taboo, and spouses were to file a "Knowledge Report'' if their partner violated the code. If a spouse didn't file a report and it came out during a confessional, he or she got in trouble, too.

Wolff sensed her husband was as frustrated as she.

"I kind of took a chance at bringing it up. And when he was agreeable I was like, 'Okay!' "

Hubbard recognized that the Sea Org wasn't for everyone. On Dec. 7, 1976, he issued a policy titled "Leaving and Leaves," on how departing staffers should be handled. It doesn't help to hold onto staff who don't want to be there, he said. But Hubbard also said everyone who leaves is to undergo a "security check,'' or "sec check,'' to protect the staff and to protect Scientology.

The church had been security conscious from its earliest days as Hubbard, and later Miscavige, battled over government investigations and lawsuits.

Church staffers used pay phones and elaborate mail drops to keep information from falling into the wrong hands. Sea Org members used fake first names. Rathbun's real first name isn't Marty, it's Mark. Morehead, the security chief, also was known as Jackson.

"Everything was done CIA fashion," Parman said. "That was the way of life in those days."

After Hubbard died in 1986, his policies became the church's guiding compass. But "Leaving and Leaves" presented a contradiction. If you let people leave when they wanted, as the policy dictated, it could compromise security. But if you held onto people until certain they posed no security risk, they might feel like they were being held against their will.

Under Miscavige, former Sea Org members say, the church put more emphasis on security. Getting out became more difficult.

If staffers like Parman and Wolff insisted on leaving, they were supposed to "route out" of the Sea Org, protocol that could take months. It included a daily regimen of manual labor and "sec checks'' — confessionals that surfaced a person's every thought and questioned his reasons for wanting to leave.

Or they could "blow.'' It was faster to secretly escape, but it triggered the church's "disconnection" practice. If the runaway didn't "route out'' properly, he would be labeled "suppressive" and lose his Scientology family and friends.

Parman and Wolff had a decision to make.

THE CHIEF OF SECURITY

Their living arrangement presented an extra obstacle. They shared a small, church-owned home with Gary Morehead and his wife. The base's security chief from 1990 to 1997, Morehead directed the team that would chase them.

Morehead said he worked with Rathbun to develop a "blow drill,'' a plan the church followed when someone left without permission, which he said happened maybe once a month.

The drill helped predict where runaways were headed, and find and return them before they spilled secrets to opposing attorneys or the media.

"I had the order and the pressure to find them," Morehead said, referring to people in charge of security above him. "And God forbid I did not find them."

Staff deployed to airports and bus stations. They called all hotels along likely escape routes. They called airlines and pretended to be the runaway checking a reservation. They phoned relatives.

The intensity of the chase mostly depended on what a runaway knew, said Rathbun, who was one of Miscavige's top lieutenants. Rathbun oversaw and participated in staff recovery missions.

"It all had to do with the hierarchy of how close you were to Miscavige, how much you knew about him and how damaging what you knew might be,'' Rathbun said.

He said the leader began each day asking if any problems had arisen overnight, and if anyone had left.

"I had to report it and take the brunt of it," Rathbun said.

Morehead, who reported to Rathbun, described runaways as "loose cannons of knowledge.'' You wanted them back, under control, before they did damage.

"I could command as many staff as I wanted,'' Rathbun said. "I could get 10 guys on the road at once. It was pretty amazing that we could always generally get to these guys before they'd get to their destination."

When they didn't, he said, they kept at it, "for weeks, if necessary."

Morehead remembered the night in 1990 that Sea Org member Julie Caetano jumped in an irrigation contractor's Ford pickup and sped off, with Morehead and two other vehicles in pursuit.

For three hours, at speeds up to 100 mph, Morehead said they chased the truck around Riverside and San Bernardino counties until the pickup got away across a rutted field. The next day the team tracked down Caetano, and she agreed to return.

The church did not respond to questions about this incident.

Mike Rinder, the church's former intelligence chief, said his department sometimes tracked runaways by getting into their credit card or bank accounts.

The account numbers came from Morehead, whose guards opened every piece of mail at the base, logging staff financial information as they went. Morehead said Sea Org members were told their personal correspondence was examined for security reasons. He said they were not told this included financial information.

"Except for the upper, upper executives, there wasn't a base staff member who I didn't have a bank account number on, a credit card number, social security number and date of birth, phone numbers, you name it, I had it all,'' Morehead said.

Church recovery efforts also drew on records from the runaways' Scientology counseling sessions, which often identified sore points in their lives the trackers could press to talk them into coming back, he said.

They also used "ethics files'' that included the staffer's transgressions and confessions, as well as the "life history" Sea Org members filled out when they came to the base that included every job held, every friend, every sexual encounter.

When a runaway was found, the recovery team sometimes used someone of influence in the person's life to get them to come back.

Those who were found were told they could be "disconnected" from family and friends.

They were told that the outside world, with its drugs, crime and insanity, was no place to be.

And the clincher: They were forsaking their eternity.

Scientology teaches that people are spiritual beings that transcend human lifetimes and inhabit an endless succession of bodies. Only the church can make a Scientologist aware of this passage and help him navigate it successfully.

That was part of the closing argument when a church recovery team located a target: Run and risk losing everything you worked for — your eternity.

"How do you control someone? You threaten what is most valuable to them," Rinder said. "And the threat is, that's going away. And that's the mental prison that people are put in.''

The church said Morehead and his team were acting "out of concern for the welfare of the blown staff member."

In "Blow Offs,'' a bulletin Hubbard issued Dec. 31, 1959, the founder said someone who wants to leave has done something to hurt the church, is withholding it and is upset about it. The only responsible thing to do is to help the person come clean.

Morehead said he believed that as he went to bring people back.

"Security in my mind-set was secondary," he said. "But as time went on you found out the (primary) effort was the security concern. We didn't give a s--- about the person."

STARTING A NEW LIFE

Parman and Wolff, in their mid-30s, wanted to reach for a new life right away, not wait until the church said they were ready to leave.

A month after the Cruise-Kidman wedding, they took a week to plan their "blow" and picked a Sunday morning, when staff got its weekly personal time. It would be hours before the day's first head count.

They knew the church would come after them because of the jobs they had held. Both had worked for Miscavige, and Parman had spent a lot of time with Hubbard and church celebrities.

They waited until Morehead and his wife fell asleep in their room, gathered a few belongings and drove off.

After about an hour, they pulled into a truck stop to eat and decompress. They stopped at Parman's parents' home in Los Angeles, borrowed $2,000 and took the coast route north.

In Lake Tahoe a day or two later, Parman won a few hundred dollars at craps and lost it back. Wolff shopped. She figured she would need new clothes to find a job in the non-Scientology world.

"You go to the hotel room and it's like, 'Oh, a TV. We can watch TV now,' " she said. "It was just kind of like an adventure."

They phoned their parents and learned that the church had called, looking for them. Wolff's sisters also had been called, but no one betrayed their location.

They went to Carson City and moved into the home of Wolff's stepfather's cousin. The cousin owned a furniture store and gave them jobs. Wolff trained as a salesperson. Her husband, the chef, moved furniture and loaded trucks.

"It was cool," Parman said. "There was some kind of hope for a life there."

They thought they were safely "off the grid," Wolff said. "We figured they'd never find us at my stepfather's cousin's house."

ON THE HUNT

The church got private investigators to tail the couple's relatives, Morehead said.

"They would just sit there and sit there and sit there and follow the family members around. They had no idea they had church-assigned private investigators sitting on them, watching them."

The surveillance paid off after several days. The couple were spotted at their temporary home and at the furniture store.

Back at the base, Morehead and his team didn't wait. The longer runaways stayed gone, the chances of talking them back diminished. Families had a way of convincing them to come home, he said.

They booked seats on the next plane out of Ontario International Airport and had only 30 minutes to get there.

"That is the fastest I've ever been driven in a car my entire life," said Morehead, who had $3,000 in expense money set aside for security. "We just had to get there, just had to f------ get there — just that deeply ingrained compulsion."

It was on to Carson City.

FOUND

The knock came first thing in the morning. Parman peeked out the window.

"We looked at each other and we just went, 'Oh my God! Oh my God! What do we do now?'" Wolff said. "I was shaking. I was nervous. I was like … 'What do we say?'"

There was no thought to refusing to open the door or telling the group to go away. Parman and Wolff were so unnerved that they reacted with compliance. They invited the group into the family room.

The Scientology entourage included Morehead, two other base security officers and two private investigators.

The team delivered messages, called "reality factors," from supervisors at the base who had examined Parman and Wolff's counseling files. The team wanted the couple to come to their hotel, undergo security checks and consider routing out properly.

They said they had "auditors" waiting at a nearby hotel, one for each of them. They wanted to help them.

The couple said they would go. Parman was swayed by the argument that leaving might cost him his eternity.

"That is their main hook," he said. "It's your future for the next millennia … They push that."

For more than an hour the security team searched their boxes, bags and clothes. They said they were looking for pictures the couple might have taken at the Cruise-Kidman wedding. They found nothing.

RUNAWAYS WHO COME BACK

The Church of Scientology describes "auditing'' as a form of spiritual counseling.

The auditor running the session asks prescribed questions intended to locate painful mental images from the person's past that may be limiting his potential. The subject holds two metal cylinders attached by wires to an "e-meter," a device said to pick up electrical currents or "charge" associated with the troubling episodes.

There's also "sec checking,'' a type of auditing designed to find out if the person has done something to harm the group.

Runaway staffers like Parman and Wolff were referred to as "security particles'' and were segregated from others, to keep their inclination to leave from spreading.

At the California base, they often were assigned to the Old Gilman House, beyond a swamp. In Clearwater, it was at the Hacienda Gardens staff housing complex on N Saturn Avenue, sometimes in rundown units known as "pig's berthing.''

Many runaways were assigned to a work detail called the Rehabilitation Project Force. They were not to speak unless spoken to, isolated from family and often "sec checked'' for hours every day.

The church says the RPF is a voluntary program that affords a staffer an isolated environment that encourages self-assessment. By mixing physical labor with periods of religious study, security checks and counseling, wayward staffers can reform.

Bruce Hines said the RPF is about mind control. Now 58, Hines teaches physics at the University of Colorado at Denver. He is six years removed from three decades in Scientology.

He figures he audited staff and parishioners for 15,000 hours, with about one-third of the hours conducting "sec checks.''

"Sec checking'' a runaway was "an interrogation,'' Hines said. Wrongdoing uncovered during sec checks was recorded by the auditor and often posted on bulletin boards or announced at the daily muster.

"Whatever you've done gets broadcast. And the worse and the juicier, the better. That shows I'm doing my job as a security checker,'' Hines said.

"If the person has blown, they hopefully would go from a frame of mind of, 'I don't want to be here. Let me go. You people are holding me against my will' … to… 'I've harmed the organization. I need to make up for it. Please let me stay.' "

To get off the RPF, Hines said, the staffer must identify why he's destructive.

"You're not looking for the bad things you've done, but the evil in you that prompted you to do those things. It's predicated on the assumption you're there because of the evil in you. And you have to root out that evil.''

Church spokesman Davis said it's "offensive in the extreme'' to describe Scientology confessionals in such terms. "Giving an individual the opportunity to unburden himself of transgressions is as old as religion itself,'' he said.

Late in 1994, a VIP's auditing session was mishandled. Hines says Miscavige blamed him, and he spent six of his last eight years on the RPF, on the other side of the auditing table and on a labor crew that cleared land, painted old mobile homes and built sheds.

To get off the RPF, the "security particle'' had to demonstrate that his evil intentions were erased. He had to show a new willingness, a deeper sense of responsibility. Sea Org members called it a "self-generating resource.''

Hines called it: "Totally in step.''

DECISION TIME

At the hotel in Carson City, Parman and Wolff were audited and "sec checked'' day after day for more than a week.

During down time they watched TV or played cards. After more than a week, the recovery team told them it was time to decide. Come back to the base. Preserve your eternity, your family relationships. If you want to leave, fine, just "route out'' properly.

"Sinar and I talked about it and then agreed to go back to the base," Wolff said. "And as soon as we agreed, it's like we were on a plane within probably an hour or two."

To that point, the church had paid for airfare, four hotel rooms, food for nine people, around-the-clock shifts by private investigators and other expenses.

"Lots of money and effort was spent on those two," Morehead said. "Lots of money."

A SOFTENING PROCESS

Before the flight back to Southern California, Wolff called her mother to assure her she was still intent on leaving. But she was equally intent on doing it by church rules. She might want to be active in Scientology again some day and wanted to keep her good standing.

A friend got Wolff into the church 11 years earlier, at age 25. She still remembered the realization she had as a little girl in Southern California, standing in her driveway, staring at the rose bushes.

"I knew I'd lived before and I knew I would live again, but I didn't know how it worked. That's what kind of started me on this quest. What are we doing here on this planet?''

Her Scientology auditing surfaced a distinct memory of how she died in her previous lifetime: a woman jerked the wheel to avoid oncoming traffic, the car landed on a power generator and she was electrocuted. "It was me," Wolff said.

It resonated with Wolff when Morehead and his team said it would be a mistake to give up on her spiritual eternity.

Once they returned to the base, the couple spent their days around the Old Gilman House. They studied Scientology books and rehabilitated an old greenhouse.

If they broke a rule, if they shared frustrations, it eventually would come out in daily sec checks. In a world of constant confessing, no thought was safe inside their heads.

After six months, Wolff softened. "You kind of start feeling better about yourself and you start feeling remorse for what you did. It's like you've deserted your group, and how could you do that?"

Paul Kellerhaus, of base security, sat with her at a card table and pushed Wolff for a decision, she said. He suggested Parman wanted to stay in the church. Did she really want a divorce?

"Probably up until the 11th hour I wanted to leave," Wolff said. "I was determined. I was not going to change my mind. And then, I don't know, (I had) those feelings of 'Oh this could happen and it just could be bad if I leave.' ''

She cried. Then: "Okay. I'll stay."

She said Kellerhaus took her decision and used it to sway Parman. He decided he would stay, too.

THEIR FINAL LEAVES

In July 1991, they started new jobs at the base, Wolff a gardener and Parman an electrician. Ten months later, for a second time, they reached for a new life. They didn't even bother to cover their tracks.

They loaded the car in the wee hours and drove to Los Angeles, to Parman's parents' house.

He took his wife to Disneyland for her birthday, and he got a job as a valet at a boutique hotel in Hollywood. Wolff helped her in-laws paint and take care of other home improvement projects.

Soon a church "case supervisor" came to the house and said two auditors were standing by. The couple agreed to "route out'' but said this time they would not return to the base. The church arranged for them to come to its complex in Hollywood for more auditing, more security checks and some Scientology courses.

At night, they went home to Parman's parents house.

The routine lasted all day, every day, for about eight months, May 1992 to January 1993.

"I want to leave," Wolff recalled thinking. "I'm not going to change my mind."

Until she got a job she liked in the church treasury department. "I kind of ended up changing my mind."

At the church's urging, she talked Parman into staying.

He was back in good graces and back as a chef.

Wolff moved to a job doing research for videos shown at the church's frequent events. She got to attend some — showy affairs with upbeat speeches and word of Scientology's bright future. Parishioners cheered. It renewed her faith in the church.

At the same time, she and Parman were growing apart. They divorced in 1998.

Wolff ran a third time, in 1999. They found her at her sister's house, and she came back, again intending to "route out.''

At the base she was assigned to live in a trailer at the Old Gilman House, joining a woman who had been there a year. They cooked on a hot plate in what Wolff described as a converted garage. She lived there more than six months.

Wolff remembers the small group outside on the night of Dec. 31, 1999, ringing in the new millenium at midnight as they looked out over the swamp. "We were like, 'Woo hoo,' " she said.

Parman, meantime, worked as Miscavige's personal chef, often traveling with the leader, who was keen on staying trim.

"I would feed him something like five different meals (a day) and they all had to be precise in percent of calories, like so many calories of protein, so many calories of carbohydrates and so many calories of fat. And they all had to taste good."

In 2001, during the fallout from the unexplained death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson, Parman was with Miscavige for an extended stay in Clearwater.

It was there, during an auditing session, Parman decided the church's promise of spiritual freedom did not add up. A top officer from the Religious Technology Center, the arm of the church that knows Scientology inside and out, put him on an e-meter to find out how he felt about his Scientology counseling regimen.

Inside, Parman was furious, which the meter should have picked up. It didn't, and the officer determined that all was well.

Parman wondered: How could that be? The next day, between cooking lunch and dinner for Miscavige, Parman went to an auto dealer on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard. He paid $1,800 for a used Honda Civic and drove off. Several weeks later, at his parents' home in Los Angeles, he saw what he took to be a private investigator staking him out.

Soon after, church representatives approached him, urging him to come back. They said an auditor was standing by. Parman told them he wanted to be left alone.

In 2001, he signed papers that required he remain silent about his time with the church. He was officially out.

That year, his ex-wife went to work on the line that assembled and repaired e-meters, and soon became the supervisor. Wolff's staff shrunk by half, but she was expected to maintain the same production. She said she often worked from 8:30 a.m. to 2, 3 or 4 a.m.

In October 2003, she was called to the base mess hall, which had been set up for a group confessional. Wolff was made to stand at a microphone facing a few hundred staffers. Egged on by supervisors, the staff jeered and berated her for not meeting production targets.

For the fourth time in her 24-year Scientology career, Wolff asked to "route out.''

The church sent her to an isolated ranch called Happy Valley, where the sec checking process took almost four months.

"Had I had the guts, I would have just gotten up and gotten out of there," Wolff said. "But you're scared."

She confessed everything she could think of, but the e-meter kept indicating she was holding something back. "This was a nightmare for me."

Finally, someone said, "You're done."

Wolff signed a declaration, dated Jan. 12, 2004, in which she blamed herself for everything and the church for nothing. "I know that what I have done violated Church policy and caused harm,'' the declaration stated. "I do not blame anyone else but myself."

She collected $500 severance and drove to her sister's home in Orange County, Calif.

Wolff's mother, Detta Groff, says the family held its breath, afraid she would go back again. She said her daughter put up with a lot.

"But she was searching for something," Groff said. "It was just a relief to have her back."

When asked for comment on the couple's departure from Scientology, the church said Wolff and Parman kept returning to the Sea Org because they wanted to. The church said Wolff messed up on her job and was dismissed. Parman is inflating his own importance by talking about famous people he cooked for.

Parman and Wolff said they signed documents confessing their faults so the church would leave them alone. They said they would not have returned to the Sea Org each time if not for the church's repeated, unsolicited intervention.

"They make it seem like there was no pressure," Wolff said. "They just gloss over the reality of what was going on."

Parman pointed to the first time they left. He and Wolff were thrilled to be starting a different life, he said. They had found new jobs.

"To say we came back willingly ... Why did we go to another state? Why did we go to different places to disappear?"

Joe Childs is Managing editor/Tampa Bay. He has supervised the Times' coverage of Scientology since 1993. He can be reached at childs@sptimes.com.

Thomas C. Tobin is a Times staff writer who has covered the Church of Scientology off and on since 1996. He can be reached at tobin@sptimes.com.
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:31 am

Collectivism
by Wikipedia

Collectivism is a term used to describe any moral, political, or social outlook, that stresses human interdependence and the importance of a collective, rather than the importance of separate individuals. Collectivists focus on community and society, and seek to give priority to group goals over individual goals.[1][2] The philosophical underpinnings of collectivism are for some related to holism or organicism -- the view that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts/pieces. Specifically, a society as a whole can be seen as having more meaning or value than the separate individuals that make up that society. [3] Collectivism is widely seen as being opposed to individualism. Notably these views are sometimes combined in systems.

Politics

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract is considered an example of collectivist political philosophy, which maintains that human society is organized along the lines of an implicit contract between members of society, and that the terms of this contract (e.g. the powers of government, the rights and responsibilities of individual citizens, etc.) are rightfully decided by the "general will" -- that is, the will of the people. The people are represented by the government; essentially the government decides what is right for the people. This idea inspired the early socialist and communist philosophers such as Karl Marx. [4]

According to Moyra Grant, in political philosophy "collectivism" refers to any philosophy or system that sees any kind of group (such as a class, nation, race, society, state, etc) as more important than the individual. [5] According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "collectivism has found varying degrees of expression in the 20th century in such movements as socialism, communism, and fascism. The least collectivist of these is social democracy, which seeks to reduce the inequities of unrestrained capitalism by government regulation, redistribution of income, and varying degrees of planning and public ownership. In socialist systems collectivist economics are carried to their furthest extreme, with a minimum of private ownership and a maximum of planned economy." [6]

However, political collectivism is not necessarily associated with support for states, governments, or other hierarchical institutions. There is also a variant of anarchism which calls itself collectivism. Collectivist anarchists, particularly Mikhail Bakunin, were among the earliest critics of authoritarian communism. They agree with communists that the means of production should be expropriated from private owners and converted to collective property, [7] but they advocate the ownership of this collective property by a loose group of decentralized communes rather than a government. Nevertheless, unlike anarcho-communists, they supported a wage system and markets in non-capital goods. Thus, Bakunin's "Collectivist Anarchism," not withstanding the title, is seen as a blend of individualism and collectivism. [8] Anarcho-communism is a more comprehensive form of non-state collectivism which advocates not only the collectivization of the means of production but of the products of labor as well. [9] According to anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin, "And as long as dwelling-houses, fields, and factories belong to isolated owners, men will have to pay them, in one way or another, for being allowed to work in the fields or factories, or for living in the houses. The owners will accept to be paid by the workers in gold, in paper-money, or in cheques exchangeable for all sorts of commodities. But how can we defend labour-notes, this new form of wagedom, when we admit that houses, fields, and factories will no longer be private property, and that they will belong to the commune or the nation?" [10]

Economics

Generally speaking, collectivism in the field of economics holds that some things should be owned by the group and used for the benefit of all rather than being owned by individuals. Central to this view is the concept of the commons, as opposed to private property. Some collectivists apply this principle only to the means of production, while others argue that all valued commodities, like environmental goods, should be regarded as public goods and placed under public ownership.

Collectivism in economics may or may not involve a state as a manager and steward of collective property. For instance, anarcho-communists, who argue for the immediate abolition of the state, wish to place all goods under communal access without a state or manager. They argue that since, according to them, the value of labor cannot truly be measured, individuals should be free to produce and consume to their own self-determined needs. In 1876, at the Florence Conference of the Italian Federation of the International, where the principles of anarcho-communism were first laid out, it was stated:

The Italian Federation considers the collective property of the products of labour as the necessary complement to the collectivist programme, the aid of all for the satisfaction of the needs of each being the only rule of production and consumption which corresponds to the principle of solidarity.


Anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin believed that a lack of collectivization of goods would be a dis-service to individuals [11].

Typology

Collectivism can be typified as "horizontal collectivism", wherein equality is emphasized and people engage in sharing and cooperation, or "vertical collectivism", wherein hierarchy is emphasized and people submit to authorities to the point of self-sacrifice. [12] Horizontal collectivism is based on the assumption that each individual is more or less equal, while vertical collectivism assumes that individuals are fundamentally different from each other. [13] Social anarchist Alexander Berkman, who was a horizontal collectivist, argued that equality does not imply a lack of unique individuality, but an equal amount of freedom and equal opportunity to develop one's own skills and talents,

“equality does not mean an equal amount but equal opportunity. . . Do not make the mistake of identifying equality in liberty with the forced equality of the convict camp. True anarchist equality implies freedom, not quantity. It does not mean that every one must eat, drink, or wear the same things, do the same work, or live in the same manner. Far from it: the very reverse, in fact. Individual needs and tastes differ, as appetites differ. It is equal opportunity to satisfy them that constitutes true equality. Far from levelling, such equality opens the door for the greatest possible variety of activity and development. For human character is diverse, and only the repression of this free diversity results in levelling, in uniformity and sameness. Free opportunity and acting out your individuality means development of natural dissimilarities and variations. . . . Life in freedom, in anarchy will do more than liberate man merely from his present political and economic bondage. That will be only the first step, the preliminary to a truly human existence. [14] ”


Indeed, horizontal collectivists argue that the idea of individuals sacrificing themselves for the "group" or "greater good" is nonsensical, arguing that groups are made up of individuals (including oneself) and are not a cohesive, monolithic entity separate from the self. But most social anarchists do not see themselves as collectivists or individualists, viewing both as illusory ideologies based on fiction [15].

Horizontal collectivists tend to favour democratic decision-making, while vertical collectivists believe in a strict chain of command. Horizontal collectivism stresses common goals, interdependence and sociability. Vertical collectivism stresses the integrity of the in-group (e.g. the family or the nation), expects individuals to sacrifice themselves for the in-group if necessary, and promotes competition between different in-groups. [13] Harry Triandis and Michele Gelfand argue that horizontal collectivist societies are those based on communal living, such as Israeli kibbutzim, while vertical collectivist societies are for example Stalinist and fascist countries or traditional communities with strong patriarchal leaders; vertical collectivism also correlates with Right-wing Authoritarianism. [13]

Collectivist societies

There are many examples of societies around the world which have characterized themselves or have been characterized by outsiders as "collectivist".

On the one hand, there are the socialist governments, which have often nationalized most economic sectors, agriculture in particular, with the exception of Cuba. If these states practice agricultural collectivism, they are often called Communist states. On the other hand, there are Israeli kibbutzim (voluntary communes where people live and farm together without private ownership), and communities such as the Freetown Christiania in Denmark (a small anarchist political experiment centered around an abandoned military installation in Copenhagen; Christiania has laws abolishing private property).

Many political movements such as fascism, all other forms of totalitarianism, and certain forms of nationalism and patriotism can be considered collectivist as well, as they emphasize the role of the nation or the state over individuals.

Democracy, with its emphasis on notions of social contract and the collective will of the people, has been characterized by some as a form of (political) collectivism.

Criticism and support for collectivism

There are two main objections to collectivism, which come from the ideas of liberal individualism. One is that collectivism stifles individuality and diversity by insisting upon a common social identity, such as nationalism, racialism, feminism, or some other group focus. The other is that collectivism is linked to statism and the diminution of freedom when political authority is used to advance collectivist goals. [16]

Criticism of collectivism comes from individualists, such as classical liberals, libertarians, individualist anarchists, and Objectivists. Perhaps the most notable modern criticism of collectivism is the one put forward by Friedrich Hayek in his book The Road to Serfdom, published in 1944 and translated into approximately 20 languages.

Ayn Rand, founder of Objectivism, was a particularly vocal opponent who believed the philosophy of collectivism led to totalitarianism. She argued that "collectivism means the subjugation of the individual to a group," and that "throughout history, no tyrant ever rose to power except on the claim of representing the common good." She further claimed that "horrors which no man would dare consider for his own selfish sake are perpetrated with a clear conscience by altruists who justify themselves by the common good." [17] (The "altruists" Rand refers to are not those who practice simple benevolence or charity, but rather those who believe in August Comte's ethical doctrine of altruism which holds that there is "a moral and political obligation of the individual to sacrifice his own interests for the sake of a greater social good."). [18]

Anti-collectivists often argue that all authoritarian and totalitarian societies are collectivist in nature. George Orwell, an advocate of democratic socialism [19], believed that collectivism resulted in the empowerment of a minority of individuals and oppression:

It cannot be said too often -- at any rate, it is not being said nearly often enough -- that collectivism is not inherently democratic, but, on the contrary, gives to a tyrannical minority such powers as the Spanish Inquisitors never dreamt of. [20]


Marxists criticize this use of the term "collectivism," on the grounds that all societies are based on class interests and therefore all societies could be considered "collectivist." Even the liberal ideal of the free individual is seen from a Marxist perspective as a smokescreen for the collective interests of the capitalist class. Social anarchists argue that "individualism" is a front for the interests of the upper class. As anarchist Emma Goldman wrote:

'rugged individualism'... is only a masked attempt to repress and defeat the individual and his individuality. So-called Individualism is the social and economic laissez-faire: the exploitation of the masses by the [ruling] classes by means of legal trickery, spiritual debasement and systematic indoctrination of the servile spirit ... That corrupt and perverse 'individualism' is the straitjacket of individuality. ... [It] has inevitably resulted in the greatest modern slavery, the crassest class distinctions driving millions to the breadline. 'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' ... Their 'rugged individualism' is simply one of the many pretenses the ruling class makes to mask unbridled business and political extortion. [21]


Ludwig von Mises wrote:

On the other hand the application of the basic ideas of collectivism cannot result in anything but social disintegration and the perpetuation of armed conflict. It is true that every variety of collectivism promises eternal peace starting with the day of its own decisive victory and the final overthrow and extermination of all other ideologies and their supporters. ... As soon as a faction has succeeded in winning the support of the majority of citizens and thereby attained control of the government machine, it is free to deny to the minority all those democratic rights by means of which it itself has previously carried on its own struggle for supremacy. [22]


Notes:

1. Chakrabarty, S (2009) The Influence of National Culture and Institutional Voids on Family Ownership of Large Firms: A Country Level Empirical Study Journal of International Management, 15(1)
2. Ratner, Carl; Lumei Hui (2003). "Theoretical and Methodological Problems in Cross–Cultural Psychology". Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 33 (1): 72. doi:10.1111/1468-5914.00206. http://www.humboldt1.com/~cr2/crosscult.htm.
3. Agassi, Joseph (1960). "Methodological Individualism". British Journal of Sociology 11 (3): 244–270. doi:10.2307/586749.
4. Hayek, Friedrich A. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism. University Of Chicago Press, 1991, Chapter Four: The Revolt of Instinct and Reason
5. Grant, Moyra. Key Ideas in Politics. Nelson Thomas 2003. p. 21
6. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 12 Jan. 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9024764>
7. Anarchism. Bottomore, T. B. The Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Blackwell Publishing, 1992. p. 22
8. Morris, Brian. Bakukunin: The Philosophy of Freedom. Black Rose Books Ltd., 1993. p. 115
9. At the Florence Conference of the Italian Federation of the International in 1876, held in a forest outside Florence due to police activity, they declared the principles of anarcho-communism, beginning with: "The Italian Federation considers the collective property of the products of labour as the necessary complement to the collectivist programme, the aid of all for the satisfaction of the needs of each being the only rule of production and consumption which corresponds to the principle of solidarity."[citation needed]
10. Kropotkin, Peter. Chapter 13 The Collectivist Wages System from The Conquest of Bread, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1906.
11. Shatz, Marshall. Introduction to Kropotkin: The Conquest of Bread and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press 1995, p. xvi "Anarchist communism called for the socialization not only of production but of the distribution of goods: the community would supply the subsistence requirements of each individual member free of charge, and the criterion, 'to each according to his labor' would be superseded by the criterion 'to each according to his needs.'"
12. Triandis, Harry C. (2001). "Individualism-Collectivism and Personality". Journal of Personality 69 (6): 909. doi:10.1111/1467-6494.696169.
13. a b c Triandis, Harry C.; Gelfand, Michele J. (1998). "Converging Measurement of Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (1): 119. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.74.1.118.
14. Berkman, Alexander. The ABC of Anarchism, p. 25
15. A.2 What does anarchism stand for?
16. Heywood, Andrew. Key Concepts in Politics. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 122
17. Rand, Ayn. The Only Path to Tommorow, Readers Digest, January 1944, pp. 88-90
18. Smith, George H. Ayn Rand on Altruism, Egoism, and Rights
19. Orwell, George Why I Write
20. George Orwell, review of The Road to Serfdom (1944)
21. Red Emma Speaks, p. 112 and 443
22. The Fallacy of Collectivism, by Ludwig von Mises
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:31 am

Concern at Governing Magazine Over Its Sale to Scientologists
by Tim Arango
November 22, 2009

Over the last several months, The St. Petersburg Times published a series of scathing articles on the Church of Scientology under the rubric “The Truth Rundown.” In 1980, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of the church’s inner workings.

Coverage of Scientology has long been an important story for The St. Petersburg Times, given that the church’s spiritual headquarters is located in nearby Clearwater, Fla.

So it came as a bit of a shock when, on Friday, the newspaper’s management announced that it would sell one of its sibling publications to a California media company whose top management are Scientologists. Governing magazine, which is based in Washington and for 23 years has covered the workings of local and state governments across the country, will be sold to e.Republic, whose founder and other top executives are Scientologists. The sale is expected to close after Thanksgiving.

The evening before the announcement, Governing’s staff gathered at the Willard InterContinental Washington hotel for its annual awards dinner, honoring its picks for the best government officials. On Friday, the staff learned of the magazine’s sale, which had long been in the works. And at a staff gathering, the question of Scientology was raised, given the paper’s aggressive coverage of the church.

“I’m aware that some of the top officials personally practice Scientology, but it never came up in the negotiations,” said Andrew Corty, a vice president of the Times Publishing Company, the holding company that runs the St. Petersburg paper and Governing. “It certainly was a question asked at our staff meeting.”

He added, “The reporting of the St. Petersburg Times has always been separate from our business functions.”

For years, e.Republic has been a respected publisher of Government Technology magazine, its flagship publication, which covers the intersection of those two subjects. E.Republic’s officials say that the personal religious affiliations of management have no bearing on the operations of the company.

The staff of Governing, nonetheless, is concerned. “There are certain tenets of the religion that affect management,” said Peter Harkness, who founded Governing in 1987 and who came out of retirement in August to serve as publisher during the sale process. “To my knowledge, they have not been proselytizing.”

Some of the anxiety among the staff stems from a 2001 article in the Sacramento News and Review, an independent weekly, about e.Republic. That article, which has been widely read by Governing’s reporters in the last few days, reported that e.Republic’s staff members are required to read a book on management called “Speaking From Experience,” written by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.

“There is concern,” Mr. Harkness said. “Unquestionably, there is concern.”

Mr. Harkness said that a recent allegation of religious bias at The Washington Times, which is owned by the Unification Church, has exacerbated anxiety among Governing’s staff. The opinion editor of The Washington Times recently filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying he was coerced to attend an event hosted by the Unification Church, according to The Associated Press. The founder of The Washington Times is the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, also the founder of the church.

A message left at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where Dennis McKenna, the founder of e.Republic, was staying the weekend to meet with Governing employees, was returned by Paul Harney, the company’s chief operating officer. (Mr. McKenna has been a Scientologist for more than 30 years, and in a New York Times article in 1979 was identified as a church spokesman.)

Mr. Harney, who is not a Scientologist, said that he had been with the company for 13 years, and that he had never read Mr. Hubbard’s book, nor, he said, read the article in the Sacramento newspaper. “I’m sure if a management book is requested and we’ve got it, we would hand it out,” he said.

He said, “We’re a business like everyone else, trying to meet a quarterly number.”

He said Scientology had been raised in meetings with Governing staff members over the weekend. “Some people have asked about it. If they’ve brought it up, we’ve addressed it on an individual basis.”

Scientology “doesn’t guide how the company is run,” he added.

Staff members of Governing were reluctant to speak on the record because they did not want to antagonize their new employers. One person who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “There have been some eyebrows raised based on the fact that the St. Pete Times has been doing these stories, while simultaneously they have been selling this to a company run by Scientologists.”

The newspaper’s series, which ran in three installments, in June, August and November, detailed what it described on its Web site as a “culture of intimidation and violence” under the church’s leader, David Miscavige. (The articles were based in part on interviews with church defectors, tales which the church has called “total lies.”)

The St. Petersburg Times, which is owned by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit group focused on journalism education, has faced financial challenges lately, like most print publications. To raise cash to shore up the newspaper, the group’s flagship, it has been selling subsidiaries. This year, it sold Congressional Quarterly, which tracks legislative activity, to Roll Call.

A more pressing concern for workers was whether or not they would keep their jobs. Many did not.

Of the publication’s 27 employees, 12 were kept on, nine were let go immediately and six others were asked to stay on in transitional roles.

Mr. Corty, the St. Petersburg executive who led the sale, said he was in a no-win situation: if he didn’t sell to e.Republic, which offered the highest bid out of six contenders, he would have been accused of discrimination.

“I felt I would have been criticized either way,” he said.
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:40 am

Dave Emory Audio: David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam Cult, Charles Manson and Roman Polanski
by Dave Emory

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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:43 am

Defectors Say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse
by Laurie Goodstein
New York Times
March 6, 2010

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

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A portrait of the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, in a church retreat center in Clearwater, Fla.

They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most.

But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them.

“Why did we work so hard for this organization,” Ms. Collbran said, “and why did it feel so wrong in the end? We just didn’t understand.”

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Christie King Collbran, who has left the Church of Scientology’s elite religious order, the Sea Org, at her home in Safety Harbor, Fla

They soon discovered others who felt the same. Searching for Web sites about Scientology that are not sponsored by the church (an activity prohibited when they were in the Sea Org), they discovered that hundreds of other Scientologists were also defecting — including high-ranking executives who had served for decades.

Fifty-six years after its founding by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986, the church is fighting off calls by former members for a Reformation. The defectors say Sea Org members were repeatedly beaten by the church’s chairman, David Miscavige, often during planning meetings; pressured to have abortions; forced to work without sleep on little pay; and held incommunicado if they wanted to leave. The church says the defectors are lying.

The defectors say that the average Scientology member, known in the church as a public, is largely unaware of the abusive environment experienced by staff members. The church works hard to cultivate public members — especially celebrities like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Nancy Cartwright (the voice of the cartoon scoundrel Bart Simpson) — whose money keeps it running.

But recently even some celebrities have begun to abandon the church, the most prominent of whom is the director and screenwriter Paul Haggis, who won Oscars for “Million Dollar Baby” and “Crash.” Mr. Haggis had been a member for 35 years. His resignation letter, leaked to a defectors’ Web site, recounted his indignation as he came to believe that the defectors’ accusations must be true.

“These were not the claims made by ‘outsiders’ looking to dig up dirt against us,” Mr. Haggis wrote. “These accusations were made by top international executives who had devoted most of their lives to the church.”

The church has responded to the bad publicity by denying the accusations and calling attention to a worldwide building campaign that showcases its wealth and industriousness. Last year, it built or renovated opulent Scientology churches, which it calls Ideal Orgs, in Rome; Malmo, Sweden; Dallas; Nashville; and Washington. And at its base here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it continued buying hotels and office buildings (54 in all) and constructing a 380,000-square-foot mecca that looks like a convention center.

“This is a representation of our success,” said the church’s spokesman, Tommy Davis, showing off the building’s cavernous atrium, still to be clad in Italian marble, at the climax of a daylong tour of the church’s Clearwater empire. “This is a result of our expansion. It’s pinch-yourself material.”

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As for the defectors, Mr. Davis called them “apostates” and said that contrary to their claims of having left the church in protest, they were expelled.

“And since they’re removed, the church is expanding like never before,” said Mr. Davis, a second-generation Scientologist whose mother is the actress Anne Archer. “And what we see here is evidence of the fact that we’re definitely better off without them.”

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‘Bridge to Total Freedom’

Scientology is an esoteric religion in which the faith is revealed gradually to those who invest their time and money to master Mr. Hubbard’s teachings. Scientologists believe that human beings are impeded by negative memories from past lives, and that by applying Mr. Hubbard’s “technology,” they can reach a state known as clear.

They may spend hundreds of hours in one-on-one “auditing” sessions, holding the slim silver-colored handles of an e-meter while an auditor asks them questions and takes notes on what they say and on the e-meter’s readings.

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By doing enough auditing, taking courses and studying Mr. Hubbard’s books and lectures — for which some Scientologists say they have paid as much as $1 million — Scientologists believe that they can proceed up the “bridge to total freedom” and live to their full abilities as Operating Thetans, pure spirits.

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They do believe in God, or a Supreme Being that is associated with infinite potential.

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The new Flag Building, in Clearwater, Fla., which has been under construction since 1999. The building, which is 380,000 square feet, has 33-foot ceilings and a chapel that will seat 250 people.

Ms. Collbran, who is 33, said she loved the church so much that she never thought she would leave. Her parents were dedicated church members in Los Angeles, and she attended full-time Scientology schools for several years. When she was 8 or 9, she took the basic communications course, which teaches techniques for persuasive public speaking and improving self-confidence and has served as a major recruiting tool.

By 10, Ms. Collbran had completed the Purification Rundown, a regimen that involves taking vitamins and sitting in a sauna (a fixture inside every Scientology church) for as much as five hours a day, for weeks at a time, to cleanse the body of toxins.

By 16, she was recruited into the Sea Org, so named because it once operated from ships, wearing a Navy-like uniform with epaulets on the shoulders for work. She fully believed in the mission: to “clear the planet” of negative influences by bringing Scientology to its inhabitants. Her mindset then, Ms. Collbran said, was: “This planet needs our help, and people are suffering. And we have the answers.”

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YOUNG RECRUITS Christie King Collbran, left, and her husband, Chris, center, in Johannesburg in 2004.

Christie and Chris Collbran were married in a simple ceremony at the Scientology center in Manhattan. Although she and her parents were very close, she said they had spent so much to advance up the bridge that they could not afford to attend the wedding.

It was in Johannesburg, where the couple had gone to supervise the building of a new Scientology organization, that Mr. Collbran, who is 29, began to have doubts. He had spent months at church headquarters in Clearwater revising the design for the Johannesburg site to meet Mr. Miscavige’s demands.

Mr. Collbran said he saw an officer hit a subordinate, and soon found that the atmosphere of supervision through intimidation was affecting him. He acknowledges that he pushed a 17-year-old staff member against a wall and yelled at his wife, who was his deputy.

In Johannesburg, officials made the church look busy for publicity photographs by filling it with Sea Org members, the Collbrans said. To make their numbers look good for headquarters, South African parishioners took their maids and gardeners to church.

But the Ideal Orgs are supposed to be self-supporting, and the Johannesburg church was generating only enough to pay each of the Collbrans $17 a week, Mr. Collbran said.

“It was all built on lies,” Mr. Collbran said. “We’re working 16 hours a day trying to save the planet, and the church is shrinking.”

‘It’s Everything You Know’

The church is vague about its membership numbers. In 11 hours with a reporter over two days, Mr. Davis, the church’s spokesman, gave the numbers of Sea Org members (8,000), of Scientologists in the Tampa-Clearwater area (12,000) and of L. Ron Hubbard’s books printed in the last two and a half years (67 million). But asked about the church’s membership, Mr. Davis said, “I couldn’t tell you an exact figure, but it’s certainly, it’s most definitely in the millions in the U.S. and millions abroad.”

He said he did not know how to account for the findings in the American Religious Identification Survey that the number of Scientologists in the United States fell from 55,000 in 2001 to 25,000 in 2008.

Marty Rathbun, who was once Mr. Miscavige’s top lieutenant, is now one of the church’s top detractors. The churches used to be busy places where members socialized and invited curious visitors to give Scientology a try, he said, but now the church is installing touch-screen displays so it can introduce visitors to Scientology with little need for Scientologists on site.

“That’s the difference between the old Scientology and the new: the brave new Scientology is all these beautiful buildings and real estate and no people,” said Mr. Rathbun, who is among several former top executives quoted by The St. Petersburg Times in a series of articles last year about the church’s reported mistreatment of staff members.

When Mr. Collbran decided he wanted to leave the Sea Org, he was sent to Los Angeles, where potential defectors are assigned to do menial labor while they reconsider their decision. Ms. Collbran remained in Johannesburg, and for three months the church refused to allow them to contact each other, the Collbrans said.

Letters they wrote to each other were intercepted, they said. Finally, Ms. Collbran was permitted to go to Los Angeles, but husband and wife were kept separated for another three months, the Collbrans said, while they went through hours of special auditing sessions called “confessionals.” The auditors tried to talk them out of leaving, and the Collbrans wavered.

They could not just up and go. For one, they said, the church had taken their passports. But even more important, they knew that if they left the Sea Org without going through the church’s official exit process, they would be declared “suppressive persons” — antisocial enemies of Scientology. They would lose the possibility of living for eternity. Their parents, siblings and friends who are Scientologists would have to disconnect completely from them, or risk being declared suppressive themselves.

“You’re in fear,” Mr. Collbran said. “You’re so into it, it’s everything you know: your family, your eternity.”

Mike Rinder, who for more than 20 years was the church’s spokesman, said the disconnect policy originated as Mr. Hubbard’s prescription for how to deal with an abusive spouse or boss.

Now, “disconnection has become a way of controlling people,” said Mr. Rinder, who says his mother, sister, brother, daughter and son disconnected from him after he left the church. “It is very, very prevalent.”

Mr. Davis, the church’s current spokesman, said Scientologists are no different from Mormons, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Amish who practice shunning or excommunication.

“These are common religious tenets,” he said. “The very survival of a religion is contingent on its protecting itself.”

The Collbrans went back to work for the church in Los Angeles, but Ms. Collbran found the atmosphere so oppressive, the staff members so miserable, that she likened it to living under “martial law” and again resolved to leave.

So she intentionally conceived a child. She knew that the Sea Org did not allow its members to have children, and she had known women who were removed when they refused to have abortions. She waited until her pregnancy had almost reached the end of the first trimester to inform her superiors. It still took two months before the church let the Collbrans go, in 2006, and not before making them sign affidavits.

“All of the auditing that you do, there’s files kept on it,” Ms. Collbran said. “All of the personal things you ever said, all the secrets, the transgressions, are all kept in there. They went through that file, wrote this affidavit as if I wrote it — and I never wrote this affidavit, the church wrote it — and made me sign it.”

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They were also handed what the church calls a “freeloader bill” for services rendered, of $90,000, which they later negotiated down to $10,000 for Ms. Collbran’s portion and paid. They now had a child and no money, but they thought they were still in good standing with their church.

Mr. Davis, the church spokesman, said the Collbrans’ exit was not unusual. The Sea Org is a religious order that requires enormous dedication, he said, and leaving any religious order can be a lengthy process. He said the church does require departing staff members to pay freeloader bills and to sign affidavits drawn up by church officials, but he contends that the affidavits never contain confidential information drawn from auditing sessions.

In Scientology auditing very detailed notes are made by the auditor of all that a pre-clear divulges. Even though Scientology promises that this information is never to be released or revealed, to anyone, should a pre-clear show any disposition to deviate or otherwise offend or attack Scientology, he soon realises the grave embarrassment of such records, and the great influence that Scientology has over him. On the occasions that a Scientologist has left the Organization or attempted to seek legal redress against it for its civil torts or criminal activities, that person's "P.C. files", are sent to the local Guardian's Office. The local Guardian's Office then telexes that confidential information of "minds" to its superior. The Guardian's Office then utilizes that information to "blackmail the attacker", to prevent that person from exposing Scientology.

-- September 14, 1981: Preliminary Report to the Clearwater City Commission Re: The Power of a Municipality to Regulate Organizations Claiming Tax Exempt or Non-Profit Status, by Michael J. Flynn


“We have never violated that trust,” Mr. Davis said. “We never have. We never will.” The church in Johannesburg is thriving now that the Collbrans have left, Mr. Davis said.

‘Suppressive Persons’

In 2008, organizers with the Internet-based group Anonymous began waves of protests outside Scientology churches in many countries. Anonymous said it was protesting the Church of Scientology’s attempts to censor Internet posts of material the church considered proprietary — including a video of Tom Cruise, an ardent Scientologist, that was created for a church event but was leaked and posted on YouTube.

“Since Anonymous has come forward,” said Marc Headley, who belonged to the Sea Org for 16 years, “more and more people who have been abused or assaulted are feeling more confident that they can speak out and not have any retaliation happen.”

Mr. Headley, who wrote a book about his experiences, is suing the church for back wages, saying that over 15 years his salary averaged out to 39 cents an hour. His wife, who said the church coerced her into having two abortions, has also filed a suit. The couple now have two small children.

The church acknowledges that Sea Org members are not allowed to have babies, but denies that it pressures people into having abortions. On the pay issue, it says that Sea Org members expect to sacrifice their material well-being to devote their lives to the church.

Scientology parishioners interviewed in Clearwater seemed unperturbed by the protests, headlines and lawsuits.

Joanie Sigal is a 36-year parishioner in Clearwater who promotes the church’s antidrug campaign to local officials. She said the defectors’ stories were like what you would hear “if I asked your ex-husband what he thought of you.”

“It’s so not news,” she said. “It’s a big yawn, actually.”

The Collbrans, despite their efforts to remain in good standing in the church, were declared suppressive persons last year. The church discovered that Mr. Collbran had traveled to Texas to talk with Mr. Rathbun, the defector who runs a Web site that has become an online community for what he calls “independent Scientologists.”

The church immediately sent emissaries to Ms. Collbran’s parents’ house in Los Angeles to inform them that their daughter was “suppressive,” Ms. Collbran said. They have refused to speak to her ever since. Recently, Ms. Collbran received an e-mail message from her mother calling her a “snake in the grass.”

Ms. Collbran says she still believes in Scientology — not in the church as it is now constituted, but in its teachings. She still gets auditing, from other Scientologists who have defected, like Mr. Rathbun.

Mr. Davis said there is no such thing: “One can’t be a Scientologist and not be part of the church.”

Mr. Collbran, for his part, wants nothing to do with his former church. “Eventually I realized I was part of a con,” he said, “and I have to leave it and get on with my life.”

Despite all they have been through together, Ms. and Mr. Collbran are getting a divorce. The reason, they agree sadly, is that they no longer see eye to eye on Scientology.
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:50 am

Demystifying Scientology's Fundamental Reality -- The BT's
by Bob Minton
August 3, 2001

In Scientology, the information contained in its confidential "upper levels" is a closely guarded secret. Many people have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach these levels, only to discover that had they known beforehand what these upper levels contained, they would not have paid for them. Others claim that even if they had known, they would have continued in Scientology. In the interest of full disclosure, we feel that anyone considering getting into Scientology should know what they can expect for their money.

In the lower levels of Scientology, new Scientologists are taught to believe that the person or "pre-clear's" behavior and problems are caused by his "reactive mind." The reactive mind is the term used by Scientologists to describe a supposed force that causes a person to act irrationally or against his own best interest. Scientology seeks to convince a person that he needs to overcome his unknowing obedience to this reactive mind and clear himself of its influence. A person is promised that when he becomes "clear" of his reactive mind, he will be free from mental and physical problems. After reaching this much-touted "State of Clear," a Scientologist is then indoctrinated to believe that by paying for a further series of expensive "auditing" procedures, he will eventually attain a state known as "Operating Thetan," or "OT." In Scientology, one is taught that there is an entity, separate from the body, which is called a "thetan". One is promised that when the state of OT is attained, one will be able to fly around at will without one's body. One will be in complete control, in fact, over the entire physical universe of Matter, Energy, Space and Time.

The OT levels are very secret in Scientology. People spend many thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars, to get onto these OT levels that are supposed to enable one to achieve such phenomenal abilities. No one has yet been able to exhibit any of these so-called super-human abilities, which on average cost USD 360,000, but many people are still trying. Some have been on these upper levels for as long as fifteen to twenty years.

The most important secret of the upper levels is found on OT 3, called the Wall of Fire in Scientology. It is on this level that one learns the "secrets of the universe." One learns Hubbard's so-called truth about why human beings are so limited in their abilities, and what can be done to correct this. Hubbard's "diagnosis" for the suffering and insanity on this planet is the OT 3 incident - the "Fourth Dynamic Engram" in Hubbardspeak. Many people characterize this as the core belief of Scientology but it is not -- it is in fact the entire CORE of Scientology.

Here is Hubbard's so-called factual and scientific truth that all Scientologist's must not only accept as reality but experience as reality:

75 million years ago, the galactic overlord for this sector of the galaxy was called Xenu. He was in charge of 76 planets, including Earth (at that time known as Teegeeack).

All of the planets Xenu controlled were over-populated by, on average, 178 billion people. Social problems dictated that Xenu rid his sector of the galaxy of this overpopulation problem, so he developed a plan.

Xenu sent out tax audit demands to all these trillions of people. As each one entered the audit centers for the income tax inspections, the people were seized, held down and injected with a mixture of alcohol and glycol, and frozen. Then, all 13.5 trillion of these frozen people were put into spaceships that looked exactly like DC8 airplanes, except that the spaceships had rocket engines instead of propellers.

Xenu's entire fleet of DC8-like spaceships then flew to planet Earth, where the frozen people were dumped in and around volcanoes in the Canary Islands and the Hawaiian Islands. When Xenu's Air Force had finished dumping the bodies into the volcanoes, hydrogen bombs were dropped into the volcanoes and the frozen space aliens were vaporized.

However, Xenu's plan involved setting up electronic traps in Teegeeack's atmosphere which were designed to trap the souls or spirits of the dead space aliens. When the 13.5 trillion spirits were being blown around on the nuclear winds, the electronic traps worked like a charm and captured all the souls in the electronic, sticky fly-paper like traps.

The spirits of the aliens were then taken to huge multiplex cinemas that Xenu had previously instructed his forces to build on Teegeeack. In these movie theaters the spirits had to spend many days watching special 3-D movies, the purpose of which was twofold: 1) to implant into these spirits a false reality, i.e. the reality that WOGS (Hubbard's derisory term for anyone not a Scientologists) know on Earth today; and, 2) to control these spirits for all eternity so that they could never cause trouble for Xenu in this sector of the Galaxy. During these films, many false pictures and stories were implanted into these spirits, which resulted in the spirits believing in all the things that control mankind on Earth today, including religion. The concept of religion, including God, Christ, Mohammed, Moses etc., were all an implanted false reality that to this very minute are used to control WOGS on Earth.

When the films ended and the souls left the cinema, they started to stick together in clusters of a few thousand and remained that way until mankind began to inhabit the Earth. Today on Earth all the spirits of these aliens have attached themselves to our bodies and are the root cause of the false reality that all but Scientology's "Homo Novis" or OT 8's on earth experience. It is the job of all Scientologists to remove this false reality from the world by auditing each and every space alien spirit and human on earth and the entire universe to CLEAR. For those who oppose Scientology and stand in their way like the Lisa McPherson Trust and all Scientology critics, Scientology promises to do away with them "quietly and without sorrow".

We have calculated that on average, each person on planet earth has 2,209 of these Body Thetans (BT's for short), Hubbard's term for the alien spirits, attached to you causing you to be constrained by Xenu's false reality. The average cost for Scientology to OT 8 is a mere USD 360,000, meaning that each BT only costs USD 163 to clear. Now that is a bargain if there ever was one.

Hubbard never said the overall cost to the planet would be cheap, but let's examine it. The planetary cost equation is as follows: 13.5 trillion spirits times USD 163 equals a mere USD 2,205,000,000,000,000. Just think about it -- USD 2.2 quadrillion -- WOW!, that's enough to keep Rear Admiral Miscavige, the current head of Scientology and Marty Rathbun, his number two, in casino chips for a long time.

To finish the "factual" account, the Loyal Officers of the Marcab Confederation finally discovered how evil Xenu was and overthrew him. He is now locked away in a mountain on one of the planets and kept in by a force-field powered by an eternal battery. Several of Xenu's relatives can often be found on the internet newsgroup called alt.religion.scientology (or ARS for short) battling Scientology daily.

Many Scientologists who have left from the highest levels of Scientology have told us that they have been in a room at Scientology's Sandcastle building in Clearwater, Florida for 5-7 hours per day for up to 15 years, holding two asparagus cans together, attached to a primitive lie detector, talking all day to these dead space aliens. And guess what? You'll never ever finish talking to dead space aliens until you leave Scientology.

As we said, you are learning about this story in the interest of full disclosure. If you become involved with Scientology we want you to do so with your eyes open and fully aware of the sort of material it contains. And, if you're in Scientology you should know how you will be spending the rest of your life.

The following comments were made by an ex-Scientology auditor and Case Supervisor named Caroline Letkeman, who was highly trained (Class IX) to administer the Scientology "technology" on the Upper Levels of Scientology's Bridge, including OT3:

Begin quote.

In order for scn (Scientology) to "work" at the upper levels, the person must accept the OT 3 incident as a literal and factual matter. If the person does not experience the fragmented condition as a "conscious and literal fact", or if he cannot accept Hubbard's interpretation of the psychological phenomena expected at this level, the person is labeled a "bypassed case" and is sent back to redo his lower levels. I.e., his psychological state must be such that he can see his psychological complexes as external autonomous entities, and he must be able to literally address these entities with the exact volcano story as given by Hubbard.

There is no getting around this point technically--either the incident is real and "processible" or the person has not validly made his lower grades. According to the technical materials of Scientology, there is no one on this earth who has escaped the incident or who is immune to its effects. That is why Hubbard labeled it as the "4th dynamic engram."

Therefore, there is no further Bridge progress possible unless and until the person can subjectively experience the required psychological condition and its associated Hubbardian interpretation.

The Scientologist at OT 3 is not addressed on the basis of his "beliefs" about Hubbard's materials. He is handled on the basis of Hubbard's "scientific" evaluation of his literal psychological condition. If the psychological condition of the person at OT 3 is not sufficiently fragmented and projected outward, he will not be able to accept the OT 3 incident as given by Hubbard as a valid interpretation of his condition.

That Scientology publicly protests criticism of their "religious beliefs" is itself dangerously misleading, in my opinion. Hubbard did not characterize the OT 3 incident as a "belief"--he taught it as a factual incident and as a scientifically researched psychological explanation for the state that OT 3's find themselves in at that level.

End quote.

If you need to know more about Scientology, start at the following web sites: http://www.lisatrust.net/ and http://www.xenu.net/ and Scientology's own web site, http://www.scientology.org/.

We do not object to anyone, Scientologists included, believing in alien cosmologies and practicing their truly held beliefs or even accepting the "reality" of those inter-galactic "events" as factual. We do have at least two problems, however, with Scientology's deception about its alien space opera--

First, Scientology lies when it says that it is compatible with all other religious beliefs. It cannot be and is not compatible with ANY religious belief since it clearly teaches that all religion is an implanted false reality. In fact, any other religious belief by a Scientologist is not even tolerated. Talk about your faith in Christ or about prayer in an auditing session and off to the Ethics Officer you will go for some PTS ("Potential Trouble Source") handling because you are indulging in "other practices". OT3, the level when a Scientologist learns about the alien cosmology and that religion is an implanted false reality, obviously ends any possibility of further illusion that Scientology can be compatible with ANY religious belief.

Second, Scientology keeps its alien cosmology a secret for financial reasons. A Scientologist is required to go through a gradual progression of expensive steps before they are allowed to learn about the alien cosmology. They are told if they learn about it prematurely, it will create a life threatening situation -- it will give them pneumonia and they might die. We know of no reports of anyone ever getting pneumonia, much less dying from exposure to Xenu and the alien story. Hiding the truth about this space opera serves several functions, including, a) recruitment -- few would join if they were told about the alien beliefs up front; b) money -- holding back the information buys time to collect more money from a recruit before the colorful information is revealed; c) control -- holding back the information allows Scientology to use the "tech" to indoctrinate and induce a person not to bolt when they do hear the alien story.

This entire cover-up of this alien cosmology in Scientology is all about deception, lies and money.

The Lisa McPherson Trust's mission is to expose the abusive and deceptive practices of Scientology and help those who have been victimized by it. Clearly, the deception and lies surrounding the alien cosmology is something we must stand up against. Let me make this clear: it is not the alien cosmology itself that we object to; it is the deception and lies surrounding it.

We are all well aware that Hubbard wrote all the policies used by Scientology management today which are at the heart of the entire war that Scientology has declared on its critics. Hubbard wrote the "Manual of Dissemination," for example, in which he instructed his followers that the purpose of a lawsuit is to harass, not to win. He also wrote the "Manual of Justice," in which he says that a reporter who dares to write anything critical about Scientology should be harassed and intimidated until he shudders into silence. He also wrote "Attacks on Scientology, Additional Policy Letter," in which he details how to destroy the reputation of anyone who is critical of Scientology. There are many, many others, including the vilest of Hubbard's policies, the "Fair Game" policy which has been in continuous use by Scientology since it was written in 1967. Current management is revising these Hubbard policies for the reprints of the OEC and Tech volumes for legal and PR reasons, because Miscavige and his lawyers don't want the public to know how rabidly insane and vindictive Hubbard really was. But these are Hubbard policies, without any doubt. Current management continues to apply the original versions of these directives, but do not delude yourself that it was anyone but L. Ron Hubbard who wrote them.

We have spent many hours with former Scientologists all over the world and have never hidden our feelings about Hubbard. To politely summarize those feelings, we think Hubbard was a sinister con man and believe that the vast majority of people who know anything about him share this view. While Miscavige may be seen as a monster, he is merely a proxy for carrying out the evil policies of L. Ron Hubbard. Miscavige is definitely not "misapplying" the evil parts of Hubbard's tech -- we believe he is using them just as Hubbard intended.

Further, we believe the creed of Scientology has many noble elements to it but think the creed is a fraud because Scientology and most Scientologists do not act in accordance with their creed. The creed is pure PR and Scientology and most Scientologists are hypocrites. A simple example of this hypocrisy is that their creed says that all men have an inalienable right to free speech, yet in practice that right is only supported by the organization when the speech is laudatory of Scientology. Otherwise you are publicly labeled a bigot and hatemonger and the fair game policies are applied against you.

One of the most difficult aspects of recovering from Scientology seems to be former members coming to terms with their irresponsibility while they were in Scientology. Over and over we have had ex-Scientologists say to us, "I didn't know about all these bad things going on in the organization," only to come back later and admit that they just didn't want to see it. Former Scientologists regret that they had bought into the management's lies so thoroughly that they couldn't see what was going on all around them. Many ex-Scientologists have told us that it was simply a lot easier not to have to take responsibility for these things. But everyone in the organization is responsible for what the organization is doing.

Remember that Scientology breeds irresponsibility and that Scientologists become addicted to that irresponsibility. What else could happen when throughout your experience in Scientology firstly it's "Engrams" and your reactive mind that are the root cause of your problems; then it's space aliens (BT's); then when you think you have eliminated all your BT's you discover you've got drugged BT's, then sleeping BT's, then unconscious BT's and finally you find that the entirety of the physical universe is a false reality that can be done away with by auditing even more BT's so that you are able to step out of the physical universe and be above matter, energy, space and time.

To better understand how Scientology works, go to the lisatrust.net website and read two articles by Stacy Brooks concerning auditing and how Scientology views the family. These articles can be found at the following, http://www.lisatrust.net/Tech.htm and http://www.lisatrust.net/Family.htm, respectively. Then, in combination with the previous articles, read the outstanding Cartesian Award winning essay by Erik Snead at http://www.lisatrust.net/literaticontes ... 0erik.html to get an insight into how this addiction to irresponsibility happens.

Scientology perpetrates fraud, abuse, deception and mind control on its adherents. These actions violate not only the law but also the human rights and civil rights of its members. Further, Scientology abhors criticism so much that it misuses the mantle of religion to promote and justify hatred and bigotry by its members, attorneys, private investigators and cult apologists towards critics.

We will defend the right of anyone to practice any truly held belief they choose. After all, the U.S. Constitution, the U.N.'s Declaration of Human Rights and other noteworthy national documents grant this basic freedom to everyone. However, nothing gives people or institutions the right to engage in behavior that violates other peoples' rights or the law, even if they do so in the name of religious motivation.
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:51 am

Ex-Scientology Lawsuits Reveal Elite Sea Org Group
by Associated Press
March 27, 2010

Lawsuits by Ex-members of Scientology's Elite Sea Org Group Allege Labor Violations

(AP) SAN JACINTO, Calif. (AP) - At the edge of arid foothills far outside Los Angeles, hundreds of Scientology followers live on a gated, 500-acre campus and work long hours for almost no pay reproducing the works of founder L. Ron Hubbard and creating the church's teaching and promotional materials.

The church says its 5,000 so-called Sea Organization members are religious devotees akin to monks who are exempt from wage requirements and overtime. But two lawsuits filed by two former Sea Org members, as they are known, allege the workers are little more than slave laborers, forced to work 100-hour weeks for pennies and threatened with manual labor if they cause trouble.

Marc Headley and his wife, Claire, are seeking back pay and overtime that could add up to $1 million each, according to their attorney, Barry Van Sickle.

Experts say the plaintiffs face an uphill battle; one similar lawsuit in state court has already been dismissed, although the plaintiff plans to appeal.

But the dispute has nonetheless focused unwelcome attention on the Sea Org, which operates as a nerve center for the church's most important business. While Sea Org members hold positions of authority within the international church, from the public relations team to the top leadership, lower-ranking members make up much of the work force.

The members are Scientology's most devoted followers: they sign a billion-year pledge, vow not to have children and live and work communally.

Scientology has been sued by disgruntled members before, but experts believe these suits are the first to use labor law to challenge the premise that the Sea Organization is akin to a fraternal religious order.

A victory for plaintiffs would "certainly go to the heart of Scientology's self-identification as a religion," said J. Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and author of a scholarly book on Scientology.

"If they were to win this suit and the people who are in the Sea Org decided they wanted money, that would lead to, if not the collapse, then a great deal of harm," he said. "They depend upon these people."

Marc Headley devoted half his life to churning out the works of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard on an assembly line before working on in-house films and designing the audiovisual displays seen in Scientology churches worldwide.

Image

Headley, who claims he escaped the gated facility in 2005, says he and others were threatened with forced labor and psychological abuse if they caused trouble.

"These folks are working for a year or two or three in a row on an hour or two of sleep a night. They're zombies," Van Sickle said. "If people had some money in their pockets or a good night's sleep, they probably wouldn't stick around."

The Church of Scientology vehemently denies the allegations and claims the plaintiffs are liars looking for money.

"When you sign up as a Sea Org member, you're signing up as a member of a religious order," Jessica Feshbach, a church spokeswoman and 16-year Sea Org member, said of the plaintiffs. "You're a volunteer. You sign a contract that says, 'I'm not going to be paid minimum wage and I know that.'"

Headley's federal lawsuit, which alleges labor violations at the Hemet facility, is set for trial in November in Los Angeles. His wife, Claire, makes similar allegations, but also claims she was coerced into having an abortion to comply with the Sea Org members' no-child policy, Van Sickle said.

Church officials say Sea Org members are not asked to have abortions, but must leave the order if they become pregnant.

The lawsuits are similar to unsuccessful claims filed by an ex-seminarian who left the Roman Catholic church and sued for minimum wage over menial labor, said Melton, the Scientology expert. A federal appeals court last week upheld a finding that minimum wage law did not apply.

Headley joined Sea Org at 16 after being raised by Scientologist parents. He moved to the gated campus near Hemet in 1989.

At first, he devoted himself to Hubbard's teachings, a blend of Eastern religion, alternative psychology and management theory.

Practitioners believe they can eliminate negative energy from past lives through study and "auditing" sessions that use electronic devices called "e-meters" to detect mental trauma. Adherents hope to attain a state called "clear" before becoming "Operating Thetans," or pure spirits.

The Sea Org traces its roots to 1967, when Hubbard, who was also a science fiction writer, took his most dedicated followers on sea voyages to explore early civilizations and spread his teachings. Its members - called ministers - live communally and often wear maritime-style uniforms with ranks.

Headley, 36, says he began to question the religion while working for an average of 39 cents an hour to mass produce cassettes that he says cost the church $1 to make but sold for $75. He also helped make CDs and DVDs and the expensive e-meters used in auditing sessions before graduating to working on in-house film production, he says.

In 15 years, he said he earned $29,000, a total he surpassed in his first year of business on his own.

Church leaders, who have labeled Headley a heretic, dispute his story and say he was an incompetent troublemaker.

Sea Org members happily receive room and board, medical and dental care, a $50 weekly personal allowance, three weeks of annual vacation and free auditing and religious instruction for their lifetime devotion, church officials said.

Each day includes two hours of Scientology study and short meal breaks.

At Golden Era Productions, about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles, a guard keeps watch at the compound's main gate.

Inside, some 400 Sea Org members live in hotel-like dorms modeled on Scottish highland architecture and eat in a log cabin-style cafeteria that features super-sized bottles of multivitamins on each table. The grounds include a golf course, a large lake and a network of paths.

The facility is calm - until the topic of Headley comes up. During an AP reporter's visit, which was videotaped and photographed by the church, spokesman Tommy Davis repeatedly admonished the reporter for inquiring about Headley and other detractors, whom he called "terrorists" for associating with Anonymous, a group that has targeted Scientology with protests and has hacked into the church's Web site.

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"We're kind of sick of people who think that they can do this with us, people who used to work here, who can leave, who are lying - and we know they're lying," said Davis. "It's a pretty nice place to live and work, and we feel that way."

Headley, who has written a book about his experiences, said during a phone interview that he endured 24-hour surveillance, roll call three times a day and censored mail. Sleeping quarters were watched at night, floodlights illuminated the campuses and escape routes were blocked during security drills. The church denies that, saying Sea Org members are free to come and go as they please.

Headley said he decided to leave in 2005 after church officials accused him of reselling old film equipment. They said they were going to begin investigating his actions and place him in a rehabilitation camp.

Davis said Headley embezzled more than $13,000, but they never filed suit against him or sought criminal charges.

Headley says he was given permission to sell old equipment on the Internet, and that he never stole anything. He claims he fled on a motorbike with $200, two days' worth of clothes and a cell phone. Security gave chase, but when Headley crashed his bike in a ditch a passer-by called 911 and sheriff's deputies arrived, he said. He thinks the officers scared off his pursuers and prevented his recapture.

Headley's wife got out of Golden Era two weeks later by fleeing a "minder" who had been sent with her to an off-campus doctor's appointment, Headley said. She found her husband through an old e-mail address he never shared with the church.

"There's no shortage of the things Scientology will do to silence their critics," said Headley, who now lives with his wife and two kids in Burbank, where he runs his own audiovisual installation business.

"Hopefully, we can end this and other people won't have to suffer like I did."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 7:58 am

Part 1 of 2

General Report on Scientology
by Jon Atack

Table of Contents:

• Background and Expertise
• L. Ron Hubbard's Intent
• L. Ron Hubbard and the claims of Dianetics and Scientology
• The Religious Nature of Scientology
• Techniques of Persuasion and Selling Techniques
• The Hypnotic Nature of Scientology
• The Sea Organization
• "Ethics"
• The Rehabilitation Project Force
• Isolation Watches
• The Erosion of Critical Thinking
• Processing
• Retribution against litigants, critics, competitors and former members
• Scientology's Attitude Towards the Courts
• Counselling
• Exhibits List

My name is Jonathan Caven-Atack. I reside at Avalon, Cranston Road, East Grinstead, West Sussex, RH19 3HQ. I was born on 5 June 1955.

Background and Expertise

1. I was a member of the Church of Scientology from December 1974 to October 1983. During that time I undertook the equivalent of 24 of the 27 available "levels" of Dianetic and Scientology "auditing" ("auditing" is supposedly a form of counselling). I also completed eight courses related to "auditor" or counsellor training as well as courses in recruitment and administration. As a part of my "indoctrination" (the word used by Hubbard for training), I read more than 20 of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's textbooks and listened to about 150 taped Hubbard lectures. I received "auditing" and "auditor" training at Scientology Missions or Churches in Birmingham, Manchester and at the British headquarters at Saint Hill, near East Grinstead.

2. In January 1983, the Church of Scientology published a list of 611 people who had been "declared Suppressive Persons" (JCA-1). Shortly thereafter, I was informed that one of my employees had been similarly "declared a Suppressive Person", and shown Scientology Policy Directive 28, "Suppressive Act — Dealing with a Declared Suppressive Person" (JCA-2). This order forbids Scientologists any contact with any person "declared Suppressive". This policy is known within Scientology as "disconnection". For six months, I wrote letters questioning the "Suppressive Person declare" issued on my employee. During that time I made enquiries of the Master at Arms, or Ethics Officer, at Saint Hill, of the Special Unit, of the International Justice Chief, of the Executive Director International and ultimately of L. Ron Hubbard. The responses I received were evasive.

3. In September 1983, I decided to conduct my own investigation of the Church of Scientology. I was unwilling to have my communication controlled and my freedom of association denied, and uneasy with the attitude of Scientology's new management, who described themselves as "tough" and "ruthless" (JCA-3), and unhappy at the high price charged for Dianetic and Scientology services ("auditing", for example, had risen from #6 per hour in 1978 to over #100 per hour) (JCA-4).

4. Since my resignation from the Church of Scientology, in October 1983, I have assembled a large collection of Scientology and Hubbard related materials, and interviewed well over a hundred former members, including a number of former Hubbard aides. I have also read thousands of pages of court rulings, government enquiry reports, affidavits and sworn testimony relating to Hubbard and Scientology. This research led to the publication, in 1990, of my book A Piece of Blue Sky, which is a history of Hubbard and his organizations. This book has been cited as a principal source of reference in academic papers by professor of sociology and history of religion Stephen Kent ("International Social Control by the Church of Scientology", presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, November 1991) (JCA-5) and by professor of neuropsychiatry Louis Jolyon West ("Psychiatry and Scientology", presented as the "Distinguished Psychiatrist" lecture, American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, 6 May 1992) (JCA-6).

5. I have been retained in connection with the preparation of many court actions in which consideration of Scientology has arisen. In 1984, I assisted in assembling documents as evidence in a child custody case put before Mr Justice Latey ("Re: Wards B & G"). In 1987, I provided documents and affidavits in the successful defence of Russell Miller's biography of Hubbard, Bare-Faced Messiah, heard before Mr Justice Vinelott, in the English High Court. I also prepared documents for the defence of Miller's book in the USA, Canada and Australia. I have been consulted by litigants in the US, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and the UK. In these cases, I have prepared documents, recommended relevant documents for discovery, and contacted or recommended witnesses.

6. I was the principal researcher for Russell Miller's Bare-Faced Messiah, and was also consulted by Bent Corydon for his L.Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman and by Stewart Lamont for his Religon Inc. I was the principal researcher for the chapter on Scientology in Jean Ritchie's Secret World of Cults. I was also the principal researcher for BBC Panorama and TVS programmes about Scientology (both broadcast in 1987). I have been consulted by television and radio producers, and by journalists throughout the world.

L. Ron Hubbard's Intent

7. Scientology was devised by L.Ron Hubbard as a means of gaining authoritarian control over those deceived into joining any of his many organizations. Hubbard cynically constructed a set of hypnotic techniques which masquerade as therapy and create progressive psychological dependency upon the organizations of Scientology. Hubbard also hid behind the pretence of religion.

8. I can give evidence regarding the techniques commonly employed by Scientology organizations to recruit followers, to create and maintain their loyalty and to sell them courses, supposed counselling, Scientology films, tapes, books and "Special Properties" (highly priced special editions of Hubbard works and Hubbard memorabilia). Although I have no qualification in psychology or psychiatry, I have had contact with several hundred former Scientologists in the last ten years, and feel able to estimate the effect of Scientology upon these former members.

L. Ron Hubbard and the claims of Dianetics and Scientology

9. Despite possession of a massive archive of Hubbard's private papers, including numerous handwritten and illustrated black magic rituals and accounts of Hubbard's extensive drug abuse (JCA-7), Scientology management still deceive Scientologists by perpetuating Hubbard's fictitious claims about his life. Scientology materials make many false claims, including the following: that Hubbard was a wounded and decorated war hero (JCA-8, JCA-9) he suffered from an ulcer (JCA-10, JCA-11) and never saw combat (JCA-12); that Hubbard was a "nuclear physicist" (JCA-13) — he failed a short course in "atomic and molecular" physics which was part of the degree course he failed to complete (JCA-14); that Hubbard had studied for five years as a teenager with holy men in India, China and Tibet (JCA-15, JCA-16, JCA-17) — he spent less than three weeks in China and did not visit India or Tibet (JCA-18, JCA-19, JCA-20). These are a few of the many deceptions created by Hubbard and perpetuated by the cynical managers of Scientology. Gerald Armstrong and Vaughn and Stacey Young were formerly in charge of Scientology's immense "Hubbard Archive" and can testify to this deliberate deception.

10. After a chequered career as the author of adventure stories, Hubbard released his first supposed therapy text, Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health, in 1950 (JCA-21). This book is still sold by the Church of Scientology, which claims sales in the millions.

11. Dianetics was in fact a reworking of techniques abandoned by Freud, where traumatic memories are supposedly re-experienced (JCA-22). In the book Dianetics, Hubbard asserted that memories of physical pain or unconsciousness ("engrams") are "the single and sole cause of aberration and psycho-somatic illness" (ibid, p.68). Such buried traumata supposedly cause people to react to situations without conscious reflection and constitute a "reactive mind".

12. Hubbard adopted Freud's notion that traumata form in "chains" and that it is necessary to find the earliest traumatic memory on such a chain to relieve its symptoms. In Dianetics, Hubbard asserted that the earliest such traumatic memories are birth and prenatal experiences.

13. The book Dianetics describes a purported system of therapy which will supposedly release the individual from compulsions, neuroses, repressions, psychoses, arthritis, bursitis, asthma, allergies, sinusitis, coronary trouble, high blood pressure, the common cold, myopia, schizophrenia, manic depression, dipsomania (ibid, pp.51-52, also p.92), visual and hearing deficiencies (ibid, pp.10-11), dermatitis, migraine, ulcers (ibid, p.92), tuberculosis (ibid, p.93), morning sickness (ibid, p.156), conjunctivitis (ibid, p.126). Hubbard also wrote that his techniques would bring about an individual with "complete recall of everything which has ever happened to him or anything he has ever studied", who would be capable of performing a calculation which a "normal [person] would do in half an hour, in ten or fifteen seconds" (ibid p.171). In later works, Hubbard also asserted that he had found psychological cures for paralysis (JCA-23, p.9), blindness, cancer (JCA-24) and leukaemia (JCA-25, JCA-26), and that his techniques had even be used to raise the dead (JCA-27, p.170).

14. In Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard asserted that his techniques would work on anyone not suffering from brain damage (JCA-21, p.17), and that the outcome of therapy would be a "Clear". A Clear would be free from the disabilities, and possessed of the capabilities, listed in the foregoing paragraph. In 1971, in the Scientology publication "Advance!", the following claim was made: "A Clear has over 135 I.Q., a vibrant personality, glowing health, good memory, amazing vitality, self-control, happiness and more. The most valuable thing you can do for yourself, and for your family, friends and Mankind is attain the state of Clear. You can achieve Clear — not in years but within months through the most advanced technology of the human spirit — Scientology" (JCA-28). A 1988 issue of "The Auditor", a Scientology magazine, asserts that "A Scientology CLEAR has: Over 135 IQ, Creative imagination, Amazing vitality, Deep relaxation, Good memory, Strong will power, Radiant health, Magnetic personality" (JCA-29). Such claims are repeatedly made in literature produced by the Church of Scientology. For instance, a 1991 issue of Scientology's "Celebrity" magazine states: "Scientology auditing can help you - you can get - A higher IQ to handle your problems ... More energy to make more money - Better health ... More years to live." (JCA-30)

15. In 1952, Hubbard incorporated notions of the spirit (or "thetan") and reincarnation into his system. He asserted that we have all existed as spiritual beings for trillions of years (by the 1970s, he was talking of quadrillions). In the 1950s, Hubbard coined the phrase "Operating Thetan", meaning a spirit capable of "operating" separately from its human body ("exterior"). The goal of Scientologists is to be "exterior with full perception". Hubbard defined "Operating Thetan" as the "ability to be at cause knowingly and at will over thought, life, form, matter, energy, space and time, subjective and objective." (JCA-31). Currently, eight "Operating Thetan" levels are available to Scientologists, most of which consist of a form of exorcism, sold to Scientologists for over #300 per hour (JCA-32). Scientologists come to believe that they are possessed by thousands of spirits which can of course lead to mental illness.

16. Many of the fundamental ideas of Scientology can be found in the works of black magician Aleister Crowley. Hubbard recommended Crowley books to his followers and called Crowley "my very good friend" (JCA-33). As with all other magical systems, Scientology seeks to stregthen the will of the individual so that the physical world and other people can be controlled by intention alone. Scientologists believe that by undergoing Hubbard's "processes" they will ultimately be able to order events through "postulates" or wishes. Hubbard promised godlike powers to his followers.

The Religious Nature of Scientology

17. In a lecture given in 1952, Hubbard asserted: "In 1938 I codified certain axioms and phenomena into what I called SCIENTOLOGY" (JCA-23, p.8). Factually, Hubbard had briefly lost control of Dianetics, so restyled his ideas "Scientology" (He was probably unaware that the word was already in use, meaning "pseudoscientific ideas"). In April 1953, Hubbard wrote to the head of the Hubbard Association of Scientologists, Helen O'Brien, asking for her opinion on "the religion angle" (JCA-34). In December 1953, Hubbard registered the Church of Scientology, and a parent body called the Church of American Science, in Camden, New Jersey (JCA-35, JCA-36, JCA-37). In February 1954, Hubbard's associate, Burton Farber, incorporated the Church of Scientology of California (JCA-38). Within a few years all organizations affiliated to Hubbard had been restyled "Churches" of Scientology. These Churches tithed 20 percent of their income to Hubbard's Church of American Science (JCA-35). In March 1954, Hubbard announced that graduate auditors "can be given any one of three or all of the following certificates: DOCTOR OF SCIENTOLOGY, FREUDIAN PSYCHO-ANALYST, DOCTOR OF DIVINITY." (JCA-35).

18. Numerous claims have been made by Hubbard and his organizations for the religious nature of Scientology. In 1954, Hubbard said: "a Scientologist has a better right to call himself a priest, a minister, a missionary, a doctor of divinity, a faith healer or a preacher than any other man who bears the insignia of religion in the Western world" (JCA-38). In a Bulletin of 18 April 1967, Hubbard asserted that "Scientology is a religion by its basic tenets, practice, historical background and by the definition of the word "religion" itself ... Scientology is ... a Religious practice in that the Church of Scientology conducts basic services such as Sermons at Church meetings, Christenings [sic — Scientology makes no claim to be a Christian Church], Weddings and Funerals." (JCA-39). In a Bulletin of 4 May 1972, Hubbard asserted "Dianetics is a science which applies to man, a living organism; and Scientology is a religion." (JCA-40). In the textbook What is Scientology?, first published in 1978, Scientology is defined as "an applied religious philosophy" (JCA-17, p.3). Most Scientology textbooks contain a disclaimer such as the following "This book is part of the works of L. Ron Hubbard, who developed Scientology applied religious philosophy and Dianetics spiritual healing technology." (JCA-41).

19. The Church of Scientology offers a "Minister's Course" to its members (JCA-42). After two weeks of training, Scientology ministers wear dog collars and the Scientology cross and conduct Sunday services, weddings, naming ceremonies and funerals (JCA-43). The Church of Scientology has in the past commissioned religious experts such as E.G. Parrinder (JCA-44) and Frank Flinn (JCA-45) to prepare reports or give testimony to the effect that Scientology is a bona fide religion. The booklet "The Corporations of Scientology" (JCA-46) claims that "In the Scientology religion, the scriptures are all the spoken and written words of L. Ron Hubbard". All Scientology organizations are licensed by the Religious Technology Center, a California based corporation, and sign an agreement accepting that the Dianetics and Scientology teachings are "scripture" (JCA-47). Hubbard's "scriptures" are incontrovertible: "It is hereafter firm Church policy that LRH [Hubbard] ISSUES ARE TO BE LEFT INTACT AS ISSUED [emphasis in original]. No one except LRH can revise his issues." (JCA-48). Since Hubbard's death in 1986, his work has been written in stone.

20. The ambiguity of Scientology's religious claims is evident in a document which discusses the establishment of a Scientology organization in Japan: "Even the point of whether we go religious or non-religious has to be covered as it will determine whether the books mention the Church [of Scientology] or not and whether they have Church symbols, etc." (JCA-49)

21. Scientology has been granted religious tax-exemption in Australia and the USA. However, in Regina v. Segerdal, in July 1970, the then Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning ruled that Scientology is not a religion (JCA-50).

Techniques of Persuasion and Selling Techniques

22. Scientology is a proselytizing faith and all Scientologists are termed "Field Staff Members" and expected to effect conversions. The methods of conversion are spelled out in the Hubbard memoranda reissued in the "Field Staff Member Kit" (JCA-51), in the "Registrar Drills" (JCA-52) and in "FSM Breakthrough - New FSM TRs - Controlling a Conversation" (JCA-53). I was extensively trained in recruiting at the Birmingham Mission of the Church of Scientology, in 1975. The Field Staff Member is instructed to discover through questioning what is "ruining" a person's life (termed "the ruin" by Hubbard) and to exploit any "fear of worsening". Having brought the individual face to face with their weakness, the Scientology Field Staff Member "brings to understanding" — the understanding that Scientology can solve whatever problem is disclosed.

23. In a tape-recorded lecture Hubbard said the following: "all the social machinery people have actually breaks down before direct intention. But the thing that causes difficulty in moving people along this line of methodology, has a great deal to do with the invasion of privacy. I won't call it privacy because that dignifies it. You have to be willing to invade privacy, very definitely ... If you have a hard time invading people's privacy, you'll have a hard time 8-Cing [controlling — "8-C", literally "infinite control"] them into a chair in an HAS Co-audit unit [Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist], first PE [Personal Efficiency Course], and so forth. Because you think they have rights. Nah [sic]! They don't have any rights! What do you mean? What do they have — what has rights? That machinery? Those dramatizations? Those computing circuits? You mean those things have rights? Hah! Pish-pash [sic] ... If you invade this guy's privacy that just walked in, believe me, he walks straight in." (JCA-54).

24. Hubbard asserted that every individual has a particular emotional level or "tone" (JCA-55, JCA-56), and during recruiting it is necessary to approximate the emotional condition of the would be recruit (Scientologists do elaborate role-playing of emotional states, including the "Mood Training Routines"), so creating rapport. Using emotional manipulation, the individual is reduced to a depressed condition where he or she will realize a desperate "need of change" in his or her life (JCA-57).

25. Hubbard called non-Scientologists "wogs" (JCA-58) or "raw meat" (JCA-59) and said that non-members are "dead" in the "head" (JCA-60) — in a hypnotic daze and therefore easily controllable. Non-Scientologists are held to be in the grip of their "Reactive minds" and so incapable of logical decision. Consequently, Field Staff Members are urged not to discuss the ideas of Scientology, but to play upon the emotional weaknesses of the potential recruit (JCA-51, JCA-61).

26. The most used method of recruitment in Scientology is the Oxford Capacity Analysis Personality Test or "OCA" (JCA-62). This derives from Scientology's "American Personality Analysis" of the early 1950s, which in turn was constructed from existing tests devised by psychologists. The OCA has no connection with Oxford, let alone Oxford University. The original test has long been outdated and was rewritten by individuals with no background in psychology or personality testing. Further, it is made clear in internal literature that far from being a "free" test, its function is solely to recruit people into Scientology (JCA-63).

27. Hubbard openly employed "hard-selling" techniques (JCA-51, under "hard sell", JCA-64). Sales staff undertake frequent (often daily) "hard-sell drilling". Scientology organizations use a printed manual called the "Hard Sell Reference Pack". I frequently experienced the use of such techniques. For instance, on my first visit to the British headquarters, at Saint Hill, in August 1975, I was taken to a staff recruiter at 11 p.m. and remained with her until about 1 a.m. My refusal to join Scientology's paramilitary "Sea Organization", which entails a "billion year" commitment (Scientologists believe in reincarnation), was met with progressively more stern entreaties. I was shown a Hubbard memorandum, which I was assured was entirely secret, which asserted that the third world war was imminent and that the Church of Scientology would be the only organization capable of surviving this holocaust and governing the world beyond it. According to this memorandum, this was the real purpose of the Sea Organization, despite Hubbard's published assertion that Scientology is "non-political". As a last stab, the recruiter told me that anyone who refuses to join the Sea Organization is insane.

28. On one occasion, between June and August 1982, I spent thirteen hours being given a sales interview by Scientologist Peter Buttery at my apartment in East Grinstead. In the same year, I was visited by the same Scientology salesman who had brought Scientologist money-lender Lee Lawrence with him. They attempted to persuade me to borrow #7,000. The assertion was made that after "upper level" Scientology counselling it would be easy for me to recoup the money and pay back the loan and the 30 percent per annum interest. Lawrence's loan applications had to be approved by Scientology (JCA-65).

29. Scientology sales staff, or "registrars", rapidly form a picture of an individual's assets and borrowing capacity. I have dealt with many individuals whose financial security was undermined by their involvement with Scientology.

30. Scientologists are told that if they fail to undertake certain courses they will be "at risk" (JCA-66). Ominous warnings are often given to those who declare an intention to leave the Churches of Scientology (JCA-67).

31. Sophisticated sales techniques are aquired by Scientology registrars on the "Registrar Salesmanship Course" (JCA-68), and through the application of material in the "Hard Sell Reference Pack" (JCA-64). Scientology registrars spend long hours "drilling" these techniques and learning how to overcome resistance (JCA-52). Such drilling continues throughout the registrar's career, especially after a failure to sell.

32. Hubbard made many extravagant and unfounded claims for Scientology and these are often used by registrars. For instance, in Flag Mission Order 375 Hubbard said: "Advanced Courses [in Scientology] are the most valuable service on the planet. Life insurance, houses, cars, stocks, bonds, college savings, all are transitory and impermanent ... There is nothing to compare with Advanced Courses. They are infinitely valuable and transcend time itself." (JCA-69). In a magazine article, Hubbard said: "For thousands of years men have sought the state of complete spiritual freedom from the endless cycle of birth and death and have sought personal immortality containing full awareness, memory and ability as a spirit independent of the flesh ... In Scientology this state has been attained. It has been achieved not on a temporary basis, subject to relapse, but on a stable plane of full awareness and ability, unqualified by accident or deterioration." (JCA-70).

33. The Scientology attitude towards new recruits is unequivocal. In a 1959 Bulletin, which is still circulated, Hubbard said "NEVER let anyone simply walk out. Convince him he's loony if he doesn't gain on it [an auditing procedure] because that's the truth" (JCA-71). In a Policy Letter which is still a part of most Scientology courses, Hubbard said: "When somebody enrols, consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe — never permit an 'open-minded' approach ... 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 ... When Mrs. Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare ... The proper instruction attitude is '... We'd rather have you dead than incapable.'" (JCA-72). In "Critics of Scientology", Hubbard asserted "it is totally hopeless and fatal not to be a Scientologist." (JCA-73).

34. In a lecture, still sold as part of a Scientology course, Hubbard said "But what kind of a government and what kind of a weapon is really serious? Not a weapon that destroys mud. A weapon that destroys minds, that's serious. Out of the body of knowledge which lies before you [i.e., Scientology] a sufficient technology is [sic — exists?] to take over, seize and handle any government on the face of the Earth ... You can control men like you would control robots with those techniques ... Contained in the knowable, workable portions before your eyes there are methods of controlling human beings and thetans [spirits] which have never before been dreamed of in this universe. Control mechanisms of such awesome and solid proportions that if the remedies were not so much easier to apply, one would be appalled at the dangerousness to beingness [sic] that exists in Scientology ... This universe has long been looking for new ways to make slaves. Well, we've got some new ways to make slaves here." (JCA-74). In private papers revealed to a California court in 1984, Hubbard said "Men are my slaves" (JCA-75).

The Hypnotic Nature of Scientology

35. An analysis of Hubbard's early publications on Dianetics makes it clear that he had practised hypnosis since his teens. He claimed vast experience as a hypnotist. Dianetics was a fusion of Freudian technique and "light trance" hypnosis. Hubbard also made it clear that aspects of his original Dianetic technique are hypnotic. Although these practices were briefly suspended in the 1950s, they have been back in full use for more than a decade in all of Scientology's many organizations. For example, in a 1950 lecture, Hubbard withdrew the system of counting people into a state of "reverie" prior to a Dianetic session, "Sometimes people go into a hypnotic trance by accident with this count system" (JCA-76). In his 1951 book Science of Survival Hubbard said "When an auditor finds his pre-clear unusually suggestive [sic], he should be very careful what he says to the pre-clear. He may notice that a pre-clear after he closes his eyes will begin to flutter his eyelids. This is a symptom of the very lightest level of hypnotic trance." (JCA-77) However, in the current "Book One" Dianetic procedure, the auditor is to "Count slowly and soothingly from 1 to 7" until "the preclear's eyes close and you notice his eyelids flicker" (JCA-78).

36. Hubbard said that Dianetics can be used to "play on another individual like a good organist plays on a Wurlitzer ... Knowing by observation, the push buttons of another person — or, as in Political Dianetics, a society — the organist can play whatever piece he likes at will." (JCA-79)

37. Recipients of Dianetic "processing" will tend to invent "memories" (for example, believing that they are reliving birth and conception or "past lives" in extra-terrestrial societies), so causing False Memory Syndrome. The techniques of Scientology exploit this collapse of distinction between memory and imagination to induce euphoria and dependency. In "Training Routine Zero", a fundamental practice of Scientology, individuals are expected to spend "some hours" sitting immobile and staring at another similarly immobile scientologist (JCA-80). This leads to a hypnotic state in which the Scientologist hallucinates and experiences spatial distortion. In the Scientology "process" "Opening Procedure by Duplication", the Scientology "auditor" commands the recipient to walk between two tables, picking up the book on one and the bottle on the other and guessing their weight and temperature. This procedure is received in two hour sessions, and as many as 18 sessions can be administered over a few days. The procedure leads to spatial dissociation, which the Scientologist is told indicates that he has left his human body although all of his perceptions are still channelled through it (JCA-81).

The Sea Organization

38. The Sea Organization, or Sea Org, was created by Hubbard in August 1967. According to promotional literature, "The Sea Org is the only guarantee of the survival of Scientology technology on this planet. Without the survival of Scientology technology, there is no hope for the survival of Man." (JCA-82).

39. Speaking of Sea Org members, Hubbard said "the whole value of a being is to his group and not to himself at all..." (JCA-83).

40. Hubbard asserted that the Sea Org is "fabian", and redefined that word to mean "using stratagem and delay to wear out an opponent" (JCA-84). Hubbard wanted the Sea Org to be seen as "a determined but elusive and sometimes frightening group". He also asserted that the Sea Org has "tough discipline", and that "Only those members who are not used heavily aboard [ship] or on mission seem to go slack." (JCA-85).

41. The Sea Org is a paramilitary organization, in which members wear pseudo-naval uniform and hold pseudo-naval ranks (JCA-86). Members also wear the equivalent of campaign ribbons (JCA-87). Scientology teaches reincarnation, and Sea Org members sign a contract for a billion years (JCA-88). Elsewhere this is styled "a pledge of eternal service". This text adds: "New Sea Org members undergo rigorous basic training ... Sea Org members, having devoted their lives to their religion, work long hours for little pay and live a communal existence" (JCA-89). The recruit gives away certain rights by signing the Sea Org contract: "I ... fully and without reservation, subscribe to the discipline, mores and conditions of this group and pledge to abide by them" (JCA-88). The Sea Org member is also expected to abide by the "Code of a Sea Org Member": "1. I promise to uphold, forward and carry out Command Intention ... 5. I promise to uphold the fact that duty is the Sea Org Member's true motivation, which is the highest motivation there is ... 11. I promise to accept and fulfill to the utmost of my ability the responsibilities entrusted to me whatever they may be and wherever they may carry me in the line of duty ... 17. I promise through my actions to increase the power of the Sea Org and decrease the power of any enemy." (JCA-90).

"Ethics"

42. In the mid-1960s, Hubbard began to experiment on his followers with "ethics penalties" — the use of humiliating and degrading practices to enforce unthinking compliance with his orders. In the "Policy Letter", "Awards and Penalties", Hubbard outlined "penalties" that staff members must suffer, prefacing his comments with this statement "Does not apply to Sea Org which has its own, much worse." Under "Non-existence", Hubbard wrote: "Must wear old clothes. May not bathe. Women must not wear make-up or have hair-do's. Men may not shave. No lunch hour is given and such persons are expected not to leave the premises." (JCA-91). In the "Penalties for Lower Conditions", Hubbard ordered that staff in a certain "ethics condition" should be subjected to "day and night confinement to org premises." (JCA-92). This was reiterated in a subsequent "Policy Letter" (JCA-93). Speaking of his "ethics penalties", Hubbard asserted "one ex-Naval person, reading them realized suddenly, 'you could kill a man with the penalties of non-existence, by work and no sleep.'" (JCA-94).

43. In 1968, Hubbard introduced the practice of "overboarding". A photograph of this practice was published in Scientology's magazine "The Auditor", issue 41, with the caption: "Students are thrown overboard for gross out tech and bequeathed to the deep!" (JCA-95). Overboarding was used as a punishment for failure to comply exactly with Hubbard's orders. At about the same time, the tank punishment — where individuals were put into the bilge tanks and kept awake for 84 hours — and the chainlocker punishment — where individuals were put in the dark, cramped, waterlogged, rat-infested and filthy chainlocker. Witnesses have said that even children were put in the chainlocker at Hubbard's order.

The Rehabilitation Project Force

44. In 1973, Hubbard introduced the "Rehabilitation Project Force" ("RPF") (JCA-96). Disobedient Sea Org members have been assigned to the RPF from that time. The RPF replaced the "Rehabilitation Unit" (JCA-96) of which Hubbard said "The unit is worked hard during the day on a rigorous schedule...". This unit had replaced the "Mud Box Brigade" — "persons appointed to clean mud boxes, fuel lines, water lines, bilges, etc." (JCA-97). Few of the internal memoranda which apply to the RPF are publicly available. All are relevant to litigation, as they show the true character of Scientology and the inhuman pressures brought to bear upon Sea Org members. The designations for RPF material are "Executive Directive 965 Flag 'RPF Reinstated'" and all additions and "Flag Order 3434" and all additions (there are at least 56 memoranda in this series, numbered FO 3434-1 to FO 3434-56).

45. The RPF is virtually a labour and thought reform camp. Members are forbidden communication with any but their "bosun" (the head of the RPF); they have to comply immediately with any order; they sleep even shorter hours than other staff; they eat even poorer food than other staff (often rice, beans and porridge for weeks. For some time in Florida, "RPFers" were fed left-over food) (JCA-98); they sleep in "pig's berthing", i.e. without beds (JCA-99, JCA-100); they do hard labour and menial tasks, including toilet and sewer cleaning; they are rarely permitted time off; they receive one quarter of the already derisory pay of other staff (JCA-101); and they have to write down detailed "confessions", which may be published by the organization (JCA-102, JCA-103). Finally, an RPF sentence is open-ended and may last for as much as four years. Failure to comply leads to posting to the "RPFers RPF", which according to witnesses has consisted of false imprisonment. False imprisonment or "isolation" is a part of the "technology" of Scientology (JCA-104, JCA-105). There are hundreds of former members who suffered the RPF.

Isolation Watches

46. While aboard ship during the early 1970s, Hubbard introduced "isolation watches" where an individual is forcibly confined after a "psychotic break" (a mental breakdown, usually caused by Scientology's hypnotic procedures). Such people can be held for weeks under 24-hour guard (JCA-104, JCA-105). The procedure is referred to as "babywatching" or "babysitting" in Scientology. In 1994, The Independent newspaper in Britain published an account of "babywatching" (JCA-106). HCO Ethics Order 2543 of 28 September 1993, concerning Heidi Degro, makes it clear that the practice is still in use (JCA-105). Indeed, the practice forms a part of Scientology's incontrovertible "scripture" (JCA-104).

The Erosion of Critical Thinking

47. I have spent over ten years interviewing and counselling former Scientologists, and have come to the firm conclusion that Dianetics and Scientology tend to erode independent decision making and critical thinking. Hubbard claimed that his techniques were the only valid approach to mental and spiritual well-being. He derided all psychotherapeutic practices (JCA-107). Hubbard asserted with regard to psychology and psychiatry that "the instigators, patrons and supporters of these two subjects classify fully and demonstrably as criminals." (JCA-108). Although Scientology claims to be "open to people of all religions" (JCA-109), Hubbard asserted that heaven has been deserted for at least 43 trillion years (JCA-110), and that Christ is simply a fabrication (JCA-111).

48. The techniques of Dianetics and Scientology induce uncritical euphoria and heighten suggestibility. Scientologists are forbidden criticism of Hubbard, his organizations, his techniques, and of other Scientologists except in written reports to those organizations (JCA-112, JCA-113). Such "ethics reports" are encouraged. To even attempt to discuss the processing techniques is termed "verbal tech[nology]" and forbidden (JCA-114). Offenders are subjected to a "Committee of Evidence", a Scientology tribunal, for the commission of a "Suppressive Act" or "High Crime". Such "High Crimes" are considered the equivalent of murder (JCA-115).

49. During the first stages of involvement, a new recruit is often flattered as an exceptional individual (JCA-52) and encouraged by false claims of physical cure (e.g., JCA-21, JCA-23 to JCA-30) and psychic abilities (e.g., JCA-69, JCA-70) made in Hubbard's works and by euphoric Scientologists.

50. Scientologists are bombarded with promotional literature, magazines such as Impact, Source, Advance!, The Auditor, Communication, Certainty, Freedom, Freewinds, Good News, Inroads, Celebrity, International Scientology News and Keeping Scientology Working News. These all point to the supposedly positive and beneficial effects of Dianetics and Scientology, but avoid any mention of court decisions, medical reports, government enquiries or media pieces critical of these practices.

51. In its publications, Scientology incites hatred for anyone critical of its ideas and techniques. For example, in "Ron's Journal 34", which has frequently been reprinted, Hubbard said:

"Time and again since 1950, the vested interests which pretend to run the world (for their own appetites and profit) have mounted full-scale attacks. With a running dog press and slavish government agencies the forces of evil have launched their lies and sought, by whatever means, to check and destroy Scientology. What is being decided in this arena is whether mankind has a chance to go free or be smashed and tortured as an abject subject of the power elite ... a review of these battles over the past thirty-two years moves one to contemptuous laughter. The enemy, perched in their trees or swinging by their tails, have been about as effective as one of their psychologist's monkeys peeling a policeman's club thinking it is a banana and then throwing it only to hit the chief ape in the face ... The AMA, pouring lies into the press through gnashing teeth persevered for years — and then went bankrupt. The psychiatrist, riding high in 1959, hoping to place one of his ilk in a blackmail position behind every head of state, hoping to consign any citizen at his whim to a psychiatric Siberia, trying to preserve his right to kill and maim as a profession above the law, is today a butt of comic strips. And what of the FDA that, for fifteen years snarled and snapped at the E-Meter? One hardly hears of them today. And what of the mighty Interpol, that tool of the CIA? It was found to be a nest of war criminals hiding out from the law itself ... You do not hear much about this from the running dog press because, of course, they were the tool of the enemy in the first place. They lose because they traffic in lies ... They are mad monkeys ... just remember a maxim: if the papers say it, it isn't true." (JCA-116).

52. Scientologists are discouraged from reading anything hostile to Scientology ("entheta") (JCA-117), and ordered not to communicate in any way with anyone critical of its teachings (JCA-2). This is quite obviously a form of mental imprisonment or psychological slavery.

53. Scientology advertising is based upon the principles of motivational research, and seeks to recruit people by bypassing their reasoning. This policy was clearly stated by Hubbard (JCA-54). In 1988, the Church of Scientology hired leading Public Relations firm Hill and Knowlton to make its advertising more effective (JCA-118).

Processing

54. Hubbard termed the hypnotic counselling procedures of Dianetics and Scientology "auditing" or "processing". Scientologists undertake some 27 "levels" consisting of hundreds of different processing procedures. Scientology practitioners are rarely, if ever, trained in psychology or psychotherapy.

55. Most processing is done with the subject, or "preclear", connected to a psychogalvanometer, described by Hubbard as a "'lie detector' as used by police and in psychology laboratories" (JCA-119). The subject is connected to the galvanometer by two hand held soup cans, which function as electrodes. The galvanometer measures variations in a small electric current passed through the subject. Where an individual is unwilling to be interrogated on the E-meter, the following practice forms a part of the "scriptures" of Scientology: "When the subject placed on a meter will not talk but can be made to hold the cans (or can be held while the cans are strapped to the soles or placed under the armpit, I am sorry if that sounds brutal, it isn't [sic]), it is still possible to obtain full information from the subject." (JCA-120).

56. During the course of auditing the individual is frequently asked to disclose guilty secrets or "withholds". The auditor writes these confessions down. According to the Bulletin "Miscellaneous Reports": "When an Auditor finds an Ethics Situation [in session reports] he should mark it and circle it in red after the session. The pc [preclear - subject] is not necessarily turned in ... but the Auditor should make mention of it ... If it is a serious situation that affects others, then it is the Auditor's responsibility to report it." (JCA-121). A copy of the report is sent to a Scientology Ethics department.

57. Scientologists are periodically subjected to confessional interrogations, where printed lists, sometimes numbering hundreds of questions, are asked (JCA-122). Scientologists pay #200 per hour for these "confessionals" (JCA-32). Confessional lists are checked with the subject connected to the "E-meter" (JCA-103). Such interrogations are now generally styled "confessionals", "integrity processing" and "eligibility confessionals" but were originally styled "security checks" or "sec checks". In the early '60s LRH [Hubbard] developed the technology known as Sec Checking. As issued it was used for two purposes: as a general tool to clean up a pc's overts and withholds and as a security tool to detect out-ethics persons and security risks." (JCA-123). In "The Only Valid Security Check", details are requested concerning potential past misdeeds, including: shoplifting, theft, forgery, blackmail, smuggling, drunkenness, burglary, embezzlement, cannibalism, drug addiction, sexual practices and counterfeiting. There are also 21 questions relating to Hubbard, his wife and Scientology (JCA-122). A Scientology "Bulletin" says "The specific details of each misdeed must be gotten." (JCA-124).

58. In the "Hubbard Communications Manual of Justice", Hubbard said "Intelligence is mostly the collection of data on people ... It is basically a listening and filing action. It is done all the time about everything and everybody." (JCA-125). Hubbard also said "The main danger of Integrity Processing is not probing a person's past but failing to do so thoroughly. When you leave an Integrity Processing question 'live' and go on to the next one, you set up a nasty situation" (JCA-126); "Take up each reading question [i.e., each question which causes a reaction on the 'E-meter'], getting the what, when, where, all of every overt [transgression] ... Get specifics ... For security investigation purposes, get all the exact names, dates, addresses, phone numbers, and any other information that might be helpful..." (JCA-103).
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

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Part 2 of 2

59. Scientologists can also be subjected to "HCO Confessionals", where they are told that the information they give will not remain confidential: "The second use of Integrity Processing is as an ethics or security measure ... [it] can be done as a straight security action." (JCA-123). The same sets of questions are used in both forms of confessional: "The term 'I am not auditing you' only occurs when a Confessional is done for justice reasons. Otherwise the procedure is the same (By 'justice reasons' is meant when a person is refusing to come clean [sic]...) ... A Confessional done for justice reasons is not auditing and the data uncovered is not withheld from the proper authorities." (JCA-103).

60. In Church of Scientology of California v. Armstrong, Mary Sue Hubbard, former "Controller" of Scientology, admitted that she had issued Guardian's Order 161269 which orders that "processing files" — the written records of confessionals — are to be reviewed so that discreditable material in them can be used against former members (JCA-127). This despite many representations that such confessional files are confidential. In July 1977, the FBI seized many examples of such "folder culls". Former senior Scientology executives testified in the Armstrong case that folder culling was a common practice in Scientology (Laurel Sullivan, Nancy Dincalci, Kima Douglas — all of whom had worked with Hubbard, and Edward Walters, a former Guardian's Office intelligence operative) (JCA-128, JCA-129, JCA-130, JCA-131).

61. Any criticism of Hubbard or Scientology is attributed to the critic's guilt and fear of being found out. Hubbard asserted: "Now, get this as a technical fact, not just a hopeful idea. Every time we have investigated the background of a critic of Scientology, we have found crimes for which that person or group could be imprisoned under existing law. We do not find critics of Scientology who do not have criminal pasts. Over and over we prove this." (JCA-73).

62. Should a Scientology student question any of the tenets of Scientology, he is required to look up definitions of words in the text: "The student says he does not understand something. The Supervisor has him look earlier in the text for a misunderstood word." (JCA-132); "Whenever a person has a confused idea of something or believes there is some conflict of ideas IT IS ALWAYS TRUE THAT A MISUNDERSTOOD WORD EXISTS AT THE BOTTOM OF THAT CONFUSION." (Emphasis in original, JCA-133).

No-one who disagrees with Hubbard can continue in Scientology. All practices have to be adhered to absolutely. To do otherwise is regarded as a violation of "standard technology". In this way, even factual errors in Hubbard's work remain unchanged. For example, the phrase "The 14th century psychiatrist" used in the "Policy Letter" "Sanity" (JCA-134). A "course supervisor" at the Birmingham Scientology organization spent almost 30 minutes trying to persuade me that this was not a typographical error for "19th".

63. Hubbard's "Policy letter" "Suppressive Acts...", (JCA-115), lists over 100 actions considered "High Crimes" or "Suppressive Acts" by Scientology. The list begins with "murder", making it clear how severely Scientology views the other listed actions. These include: "Public statements against Scientology"; "Testifying hostilely before state or public inquiries"; "Continued membership in a divergent group"; "Continued adherence to a person or group pronounced a suppressive person or group"; "Delivering up the person of a Scientologist without justifiable defense or lawful protest to the demands of civil or criminal law"; "Permitting students to talk to each other...during course hours"; "to publicly depart Scientology". For committing any of these "high crimes", a Scientologist can be expelled and "declared Suppressive" and his Scientologist friends forbidden further communication with him (JCA-2).

64. In training, Scientologists are subjected to an elaborate system of "checkouts" to ensure that they have exactly "duplicated" Hubbard's teachings. These include "high crime checkouts" (JCA-135). The purpose of such "checkouts" is to bring about absolute agreement with Hubbard. Should a student fail to agree with Hubbard, he will be sent first to the "Cramming" section of the organization and then, if that fails, to the "Ethics" section. No student is permitted to continue with a course beyond a disagreement, and students who disagree are separated from other students. Continued disagreement leads to expulsion from Scientology.

65. HCO Policy Letter "Policies on Physical Healing..." explains categories of people forbidden involvement with Scientology: "a. Persons intimately connected with persons... of known antagonism to .... Scientology"; "Persons who want to be processed to see if Scientology works' .. News reporters fall into this category."; "Persons who `have an open mind' " (JCA-136).

66. Scientologists are forbidden medical assistance without consent from Scientology (JCA-137). All psychotherapies and meditational practices are forbidden (JCA-138).

67. Any Scientology "Clear" can be questioned to determine which of Hubbard's claimed criteria they have obtained — for example, freedom from the common cold, a near perfect memory and the ability to do a calculation in ten or fifteen seconds that would take a "normal" person 30 minutes. The claims for "Operating Thetan levels", which come after "Clear". are stranger yet. Scientology "Operating Thetans" should be asked about their ability to leave their bodies and remotely perceive events. Demonstrations should be sought. Having failed to meet Hubbard's criteria, the individual will still show absolute loyalty to Hubbard.

Retribution against litigants, critics, competitors and former members

68. The Hubbard "Policy Letter" "Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists" (JCA-115), shows how easy it is to commit "High Crimes" or "Suppressive Acts". These include "Public disavowal of Scientology", "Public statements against Scientology", "Bringing civil suit against any Scientology organization", "Demanding the return of any or all fees", "Continued adherence to a person or group pronounced a suppressive person or group", "publicly departing Scientology" and "Violation or neglect of any of the ten points of Keeping Scientology Working" (in particular "Knowing it [Scientology "technology"] is correct", "Applying the technology", "Hammering out of existence incorrect technology"). Strictly speaking, anyone who does not know that Scientology's "technology" is correct is deemed a "Suppressive Person".

69. It is made clear in Scientology's published policy that a person expelled from Scientology is "Fair Game" (JCA-139). A "Suppressive Person declare" is Scientology's equivalent of the Shia Muslim "fatwa".

70. In "Justice, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists, the Fair Game Law", Hubbard asserted "By FAIR GAME is meant, without rights for self, possessions or position, and no Scientologist may be brought before a Committee of Evidence or punished for any action taken against a Suppressive Person or Group during the period that person or group is 'fair game'." (JCA-140) In this Policy Letter, we learn that "Suppressive Acts include ... 1st degree murder, arson, disintegration of persons or belongings not guilty of suppressive acts". Scientologists are thereby given leave to destroy the person and property of a "Suppressive Person".

71. Elsewhere, Hubbard carefully explained the provisions of Fair Game: A Suppressive Person "May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed." (JCA-141).

72. In 1968, Hubbard ordered that the words "Fair Game" "may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations." However, the practice of Fair Game was not cancelled "This ... does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP [Suppressive Person]." (JCA-142).

73. A training checksheet used as evidence in the conviction of eleven Scientology officials in the US (including Hubbard's wife and immediate deputy), shows that the 1 March 1965 "Policy Letter" (JCA-140) still formed part of a secret course for Scientology harassment operatives (members of "Branch One" of the "Guardian's Office" of Scientology) (JCA-143, p.18, second item).

74. When the nominal head of Scientology's "Guardian's Office", Jane Kember, and the head of Scientology Intelligence, Morris Budlong, were sentenced to imprisonment in the United States, in 1980, the sentencing memorandum included this statement: "Defendants, through one of their attorneys, have stated that the fair game policy continued in effect well after the indictment in this case and the conviction of the first nine co-defendants. Defendants claim that the policy was abrogated by the Church's Board of Directors in late July or early August, 1980." (JCA-144, footnote p.16).

75. The "Policy Letter" which allegedly cancelled "fair game" in 1980 (JCA-139), was itself cancelled by a Policy Letter of 8 September 1983 (JCA-145). As such, Fair Game is an incontrovertible "scripture" of the Churches of Scientology (JCA-46, JCA-47, JCA-48), even though the words "fair game" are no longer used to describe the practice (JCA-142).

76. Mr. Justice Latey ruled in the High Court in London, in July 1984, that "Deprival of property, injury by any means, trickery, suing, lying or destruction have been pursued throughout and to this day with the fullest possible vigour ... The 'Church' resorts to lies and deceit whenever it thinks it will profit it to do so." (JCA-146).

77. In Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California (the "mother church" of the Churches of Scientology at the time the suit was filed), the California Appeal Court ruled, in a decision upheld by the US Supreme Court: "Wollersheim was compelled to abandon his wife and his family through the policy of disconnect. When his mental illness reached such a level he actively planned his suicide, he was forbidden to seek professional help. Finally, when Wollersheim was able to leave the Church, it subjected him to financial ruin through its policy of 'fair game'." (JCA-147, pp.A-7, 15 & 16). At appeal, Scientology asserted that "fair game" was a "core practice of Scientology", and therefore protected as "religious expression". This position was also made on behalf of Scientology in the case against Gerald Armstrong, in 1984, by religious expert Dr. Frank Flinn (JCA-45).

78. In the same case (Church of Scientology of California v. Armstrong) (JCA-7), Judge Paul Breckenridge criticised the continued use of Fair Game, showing that the policy had remained in force beyond the supposed cancellation in 1980. Judge Breckenridge said: "In addition to violating and abusing its own members' civil rights, the [Scientology] organization over the years with its 'Fair Game' doctrine has harassed and abused those persons not in the Church whom it perceives as its enemies." Judge Breckenridge added, "After the within suit was filed ... Defendant Armstrong was the subject of harassment, including being followed and surveilled by individuals who admitted employment by Plaintiff; being assaulted by one of these individuals; being struck bodily by a car driven by one of these individuals; having two attempts made by said individuals apparently to involve Defendant Armstrong in a freeway automobile accident; having said individuals come onto Defendant Armstrong's property, spy in his windows, create disturbances, and upset his neighbors".

79. Fair Game has long been a policy of Scientology. In 1955 Hubbard wrote, speaking of practitioners of Scientology not licensed by him: "The law can be used very easily to harass ... if possible, of course, ruin him utterly" (JCA-27, p.157). Hubbard also wrote, "If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace." (JCA-148).

80. In 1965, Hubbard wrote in Scientology's "Auditor" magazine: "Principals of the Victorian government such as the 'Prime Minister', Anderson the 'Q.C.' and hostile members of the 'Victorian Parliament' are continued as suppressive persons and they and their families and connections may not be processed or trained and are fair game." (JCA-149).

81. Current Scientology "scriptures" attribute only negative qualities to "Suppressive Persons" (JCA-150). Between 1983 and 1992, the number of people ajudged "Suppressive Persons" by Scientology increased from 600 (JCA-1) to 2,400 (JCA-151). According to Scientology leader David Miscavige, the next section of Hubbard's supposed psychotherapy — Operating Thetan Course Section 9 — will not be released until "ethics is fully gotten in on the SPs [Suppressive Persons]" (JCA-152). This means that all critics of Scientology must be silenced. In light of the "scripture" of "Fair Game", the interpretation of this order to all Scientologists can only be alarming.

82. The lengths to which Scientologists will go to harass opponents are shown by a Hubbard lecture, still distributed within Scientology, where Hubbard boasted of the creation of his intelligence agency the "Guardian's Office", and its infiltration of newspapers, international banks and even the British government: "With all of this action being taken against us in the last 17 years ... it was vitally necessary that I isolate who it was on this planet who was attacking us ... The Organization, under the direction of Mary Sue [Hubbard], ... employed several professional intelligence agents who had long and successful professional backgrounds and they looked into this matter for us and the results of their activities — although still in progress — have told us all we needed to know with regard to any enemy we had on this planet. Our enemies on this planet are less than 12 men. They are members of the Bank of England, and other higher financial circles. They own and control newspaper chains and they are oddly enough directors in all the Mental Health groups in the world ... Wilson ... the current premier of England [sic] is totally involved with these fellows ... They have collected rather interesting files on us ... and their orders concerning what to do about this as part of their files all makes very interesting reading. We of course have full copies of their files. It was, of course, their bad luck to tangle with someone who had been trained in the field of intelligence by the allied governments, which is myself and they had insufficient security and insufficient loyalty amongst their own people to keep out the intelligence agents which we sent against them." (JCA-153).

83. Ten years after Hubbard initiated the practice of infiltration and theft, Churches of Scientology in the US were raided. This led to the conviction and imprisonment of eleven Scientology officials (JCA-154). Almost forty others were cited as "unindicted co-conspirators", including Hubbard (JCA-155). Similar events led to convictions in Canada in 1992.

84. The sentencing memorandum in USA v. Mary Sue Hubbard et al makes clear the scale of the offences committed by Hubbard's agents: "The United States initiated the investigation which resulted in the instant indictment in view of the brazen, systematic and persistent burglaries of United States Government offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California, over an extended period of at least some two years. Additionally, the United States was confronted with the pervasive conduct of the defendants in this case in thwarting a federal Grand Jury investigation by harboring a fugitive, in effect forcefully kidnapping a witness who had decided to surrender to the federal authorities, submitting false evidence to the Grand Jury, destroying other evidence which might have been of valuable aid to its investigation, preparing a cover-up story, and encouraging and drilling a crucial witness to give false testimony under oath to that Grand Jury ... a review of the documents seized in the ... searches ... show the incredible and sweeping nature of the criminal conduct of the defendants and of the organization which they led. These crimes include infiltration and theft of documents from a number of prominent private national and world organizations, law firms and newspapers; the execution of smear campaigns and baseless law suits to destroy private individuals who had attempted to exercise their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression; the framing of private citizens who had been critical of Scientology, including the forging of documents which led to the indictment of at least one innocent person; violation of the civil rights of prominent private figures and public officials. These are but a few of the criminal acts not covered in the 'uncontested' stipulation of evidence ... defendant Heldt's assertion that 'the policy of the Church prohibits any illegality on the part of its members or staff...' is totally unfounded and incorrect. The evidence in this case ... establish[es] beyond peradventure that the Church and its leadership had, over the years, approved, condoned and engaged in gross and widespread illegality. One, indeed, wonders how it can even be suggested that the defendants and their organization did not make illegal activities part and parcel of their daily work." (JCA-154).

Scientology's Attitude Towards the Courts

85. The scriptures of Scientology show little respect for the judicial system. In 1965, Hubbard wrote "Don't react to Scientology Ethics as though it were 'wog' law. In society's 'courts' one is given the works and truth has little bearing on the findings. A mean judge or clever attorney and small legal errors decide a lot of their cases. Wog courts are like throwing dice. There is huge cost and publicity and punishment galore even for the innocent." (JCA-156). In another 1965 "Policy Letter", Hubbard said "Want to know why wog courts make people nervy? Who can predict a wog court decision? Who can even predict the sentence man to man for the same crime?" (JCA-157).

86. The second edition of What is Scientology? contains a section comparing "Scientology justice" to "wog law", which says that the "justice system is bogged down in a morass of Latinized grammatical complexities and has become, sadly, a matter of which attorney can present the better argument. Right and wrong, guilt and innocence are relegated to bit players in the show. A lawyer defending a criminal on trial for armed robbery, for instance, is not interested in establishing guilt or innocence; he is looking for a loophole or technicality on which the case can be dismissed and his client set free whether guilty or not. Few have the wealth necessary or even try to pursue justice through the courts and even if one prevails, attorney costs often make it a Pyrrhic victory. The due process of the court system is in a virtual gridlock of motions, countermotions, depositions, injunctions, appeals, claims and counterclaims." (JCA-158).

87. In a statement recusing himself from a Scientology case, California judge James Ideman said "The past eight years have consisted mainly of a prolonged, and ultimately unsucessful, attempt to persuade or compel the plaintiff to comply with lawful discovery. These efforts have been fiercely resisted by plaintiffs. They have utilized every device that we on the District Court have ever heard of to avoid such compliance, and some that are new to us. This noncompliance has consisted of evasions, misrepresentations, broken promises and lies, but ultimately with refusal. As part of this scheme to not comply, the plaintiffs have undertaken a massive campaign of filing every conceivable motion (and some inconceivable) to disguise the true issue in these pretrial proceedings. Apparently viewing litigation as war, plaintiffs by this tactic have had the effect of massively increasing the costs to the other parties, and, for a while, to the Court ... The scope of the plaintiffs' efforts have to be seen to be believed ... 1,737 filings [were made by Scientology] ... Yet it is almost all puffery — motions without merit or substance." (JCA-159).

88. In the "scriptures" of Scientology, Hubbard wrote: "the law can be used very easily to harass." The December 1980 issue of "The American Lawyer" makes it clear that this policy has extended to judges in trials involving Scientology (JCA-160).

89. As part of their membership contract, Scientologists are compelled to sign the "Pledge to Mankind", first issued in 1984, which reads in part "In the United States ... we are the targets of unprincipled attacks in the court system by those who would line their pockets from our hard won coffers. Bigots in all branches of government ... are bent on our destruction through taxation and repressive legislation. We have been subjected to illegal heresy trials in two countries before prejudiced and malinformed judges who are not qualified or inclined to perceive the truth." (JCA-161).

90. A 1985 issue of the Scientology magazine "Impact" carries the following account: "Rev. Ken Hoden ... President of the Church of Scientology of California recently won a motion in Los Angeles that allowed the Church to rebring an important Federal Lawsuit. After one of the Church attorneys was arrested on the charge of contempt of court and another escorted out of the Courtrooms by order of a suppressive Judge ... Rev. Hoden got up. He argued before the judge for a full twenty minutes. He had effectively picked up the ball and gave a most moving, pro-Church and anti-suppression speech, right to the face of the suppression: the judge in the case." (JCA-162).

Counselling

91. Since 1983, I have counselled tens of former Scientologists and been appalled by a succession of accounts of financial and psychological devastation. I have met individuals who borrowed money under false pretences, bankrupted businesses to pay immense amounts for Scientology "auditing", and abandoned spouses and even small children to pursue Scientology. I have also counselled individuals who had left Scientology as much as 20 years before and who had been plagued by guilt and a sense of inadequacy induced by Scientology and its techniques of psychological domination. Scientology is especially dangerous to those with incipient mental illness. I have counselled two individuals who were first committed to mental hospitals after encountering Scientology and been consulted by the staff of a psychiatric hospital in a third case. A California Appeal Court judgment, upheld by the US Supreme Court, shows that Scientology brought about manic depression and suicidal tendencies in former member Lawrence Wollersheim (JCA-147, p.A-2).

92. The promises of Dianetics and Scientology are so attractive, the counselling procedures so invasive and the selling techniques so forceful that former members can take years to see them as simply techniques of psychological domination. U.S. academics Conway and Siegelman, who studied 400 former cult members from 48 groups, concluded that Scientology has "the most debilitating set of rituals of any cult in America ... although claiming the most severe long-term effects, former Scientologists surveyed reported the lowest total of hours per week spent in ritual and indoctrination." Conway and Siegelman approximated the time for unaided recovery at 12.5 years (JCA-163). My own experiences as a counsellor bear this out.

Jonathan Caven-Atack General Report on Scientology — Exhibits List:

• JCA-1. Sea Organization Executive Directive 2192 International, "List of Declared Suppressive Persons", 27 January 1983.
• JCA-2. Scientology Policy Directive 28, "Suppressive Act - Dealing with a Suppressive Person", 13 August 1982.
• JCA-3. Sea Organization Executive Directive 2104, "The Flow Up the Bridge...", 7 November 1982, p.7.
• JCA-4. AOSHUK price list, 1983.
• JCA-5. Professor Stephen A. Kent, "International Social Control by the Church of Scientology.", 23 March 1992.
• JCA-6. Professor Louis Jolyon West, M.D., "Psychiatry and Scientology", 6 May 1992.
• JCA-7. Memorandum of Intended Decision in Church of Scientology of California v. Gerald Armstrong, Superior Court for the State of California, C420153, 20 June 1984.
• JCA-8. Church of Scientology International, What is Scientology?, second edition, 1992.
• JCA-9. Church of Scientology, "A Report to Members of Parliament on Scientology, December 1968.
• JCA-10. US Navy medical records for L. Ron Hubbard.
• JCA-11. Look magazine, 5 December 1950.
• JCA-12. Letter from the Department of the Navy to Mark Jones, 1 October 1985.
• JCA-13. Hubbard, "Man who invented Scientology", Bulletin of 26 May 1959, reprinted in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, volume 4, pp.470-471, 1979 printing.
• JCA-14. Letter from the registrar, George Washington University to the US Navy, 27 May 1941, including Hubbard's college grades.
• JCA-15. Hubbard, Mission into Time, 1973.
• JCA-16. Hubbard, "A Short Biography of L. Ron Hubbard", "The Auditor" issue 63.
• JCA-17. Church of Scientology of California, What is Scientology?, 1978 edition.
• JCA-18. Hubbard, journal of his 1927 trip to Guam (exhibit 62 in CSC v Armstrong, 1984).
• JCA-19. Hubbard, journal of his 1928 trip to Guam (exhibit 65 in CSC v Armstong).
• JCA-20. Hubbard, "The Camp-Fire", "Adventure" magazine, 1 October1935.
• JCA-21. Hubbard, Dianetics: The-Modern Science of Mental Health, New Era, Denmark, 1982 printing.
• JCA-22. Freud, Two Short Accounts of Psycho-Analysis, trans and ed James Strachey, Pelican Books, England, 1984.
• JCA-23. Hubbard, Address by L, Ron Hubbard, Arcadia Theater, Wichita, Kansas", 6 February 1952,
• JCA-24. Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man, 1968 printing.
• JCA-25. Hubbard, "The Old Man's Case-Book", from "The Journal of Scientology", issue 15-G, May 1953, reprinted in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, volume 1, p.337, 1979 printing.
• JCA-26. "The Auditor", issue 198, worldwide, 1975.
• JCA-27. Hubbard, "The Scientologist - A Manual on the Dissemination of Material", reprinted in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology volume 2, pp.151-171, 1979 printing.
• JCA-28. "Advance!", issue 10, p.2.
• JCA-29. "The Auditor", Africa and Europe, issue 231, p.3.
• JCA-30. "Celebrity", minor issue 247, p.14.
• JCA-31. Hubbard, Scientology 0-8, pp.134-135 (removed from subsequent editions), 1971 printing.
• JCA-32. Advanced Organisation Saint Hill United Kingdom, "Donations Information", March 1992.
• JCA-33. Hubbard, "Philadelphia Doctorate Course", lecture 18, 1982 transcript, p.17.
• JCA-34. Hubbard letter to Helen O'Brien, 10 April 1953 (exhibit 500-4V in CSC v Armstrong 1984, cited in vol.12, p.1976 and vol.26, p.4619).
• JCA-35. Hubbard, Associate Letter of 10 March 1954, reprinted in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, volume 2, pp.32-34, 1979 printing.
• JCA-36. Hubbard, Modern Management Technology Defined, 1976 edition, definition of "Church of American Science".
• JCA-37, Roy Wallis, PhD, The Road to Total Freedom - a sociological analysis of Scientology, Heinmann, England, 1976, p.128.
• JCA-38. Hubbard, "Why Doctor of Divinity?" in "Professional Auditor's Bulletin", issue 32, reprinted in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, volume 2, pp.72-75, 1979 edition.
• JCA-39. Hubbard, "Religious Philosophy and Religious Practice", Bulletin of 18 April 1967, reprinted in The Technical Volumes of Dianetics and Scientology,volume 6, p.195, 1979 edition.
• JCA-40. Hubbard, "Six Basic Processes", Bulletin of 4 May 1972, reprinted in The Technical Volumes of Dianetics and Scientology, volume 8, pp.107-111, 1979 edition.
• JCA-41. Hubbard, All About Radiation, Bridge, LA, 1989 edition.
• JCA-42. Church of Scientology International. What is Scientology?, p.688, second edition, 1992.
• JCA-43. Hubbard, The Background and Ceremonies of the Church of Scientology of California, World Wide, Church of Scientology of California, East Grinstead, 1973, pp.26-55.
• JCA-44. Affirmation of E.G.Parrinder, 25 November 1971.
• JCA-45. Frank K. Flinn testimony in Church of Scientology of California, 1984, vol.23, pp.4032-4160.
• JCA-46. "The Corporations of Scientology", p.24, 1989.
• JCA-47. Trademark License Agreement - SMI/Mission, licence to use Religious Technology Center trademarks and service marks.
• JCA-48. Scientology Policy Directive 19, "The Integrity of Source", 7 July 1982.
• JCA-49. Japan Eval, Vinay Agarwala, 29 January 1981, Sea Org Aides Order 549-1.
• JCA-50. Regina v Registrar General, ex parte Segerdal, Queens Bench, London, November 1969 and Court of Appeal, July 1970.
• JCA-51. Church of Scientology International, "Field Staff Member Kit ", 1993.
• JCA-52. Hubbard, "Registrar Drills", Policy Letter of 27 May 1980, revised 2 October 1981.
• JCA-53. HCOB FSM Breakthrough - New FSM TRs - Controlling a Conversation, 27 January 1984, Field Staff Member Specialist, Bridge, LA, 1991.
• JCA-54. Hubbard, "Second Lecture on Clearing Methodology", 13 May 1959.
• JCA-55. Hubbard, Volunteer Minister's Handbook, pp.61-66, 1977 printing.
• JCA-56. Hubbard, "The Tone Scale", Scientology 0-8, p.101, 1971 printing.
• JCA-57. Hubbard, "Lower Awareness Levels", Scientology 0-8, p.133, 1971 printing.
• JCA-58. Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary, p.471, 1975 edition.
• JCA-59. Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary, p.335, 1975 edition.
• JCA-60. Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary, p.104, 1975 edition.
• JCA-61. Hubbard, "Books are Dissemination", Bulletin of 28 April 1960, reprinted in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, volume 4, pp.78-81, 1979 printing.
• JCA-62. The Standard Oxford Capacity Analysis.
• JCA-63. The Hat of the Personality Test Evaluator.
• JCA-64, Hubbard, "The Hard Sell Reference Pack", pp.i-vi, 1987.
• JCA-65. Lee Lawrence, "To the Scientologist Loan Applicant", undated.
• JCA-66. Hubbard, "The No-Interference Area Clarified and Re-enforced", undated.
• JCA-67. Sea Organisation Executive Directive 2104 International, "The Flow Up the Bridge...", 7 November 1982, pp.17-18.
• JCA-68. Hubbard, "Registrar Salesmanship Course Checksheet", Policy Letter of 2 December 1972, revised 20 May 1980.
• JCA-69. Hubbard, promotional leaflet, 1992, from Flag Mission Order 375, 1970.
• JCA-70. Hubbard, "OT and Beyond", " The Auditor" issue 19, 1966.
• JCA-71. Hubbard, "The Organization of a PE Foundation", Bulletin of 29 September 1959, reprinted in The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, volume 3, pp.527-528, 1979 printing.
• JCA-72. Hubbard, "Keeping Scientology Working", Policy Letter of 7 February 1965, reissued in 1980, The Organization Executive Course, volume 0, pp.7-13, 1991 edition.
• JCA-73. Hubbard, "Critics of Scientology", Bulletin of 5 November 1967, reprinted in The Organization Executive Course, volume 1, pp.782-784, 1991 edition.
• JCA-74. Hubbard, "Philadelphia Doctorate Course", lecture 20, 1982 printing.
• JCA-75. Court transcript in Church of Scientology of California v Armstrong, volume 13, p.2056-2057.
• JCA-76. Hubbard, Introducing Dianetics, 1950, reprinted in The Research and Discovery Series, vol.3, p.15, Bridge, LA, 1st edition, 1982.
• JCA-77. Hubbard, Science of Survival, Hubbard College of Scientology, East Grinstead, 1968, pp.227-228.
• JCA-78. Hubbard Dianetics Auditor Course, Bridge, LA, 1988, p.54.
• JCA-79. Hubbard, Educational Dianetics, 1950, reprinted in Research and Discovery Series, volume 3, p.241, Bridge, LA, 1st edition, 1982.
• JCA-80. HCOB Training Drills Remodernized, 5 July 1978.
• JCA-81. HCOB Op Pro by Dup, 4 February 1959.
• JCA-82. Promotional leaflet, "It's up to you", 1988.
• JCA-83. Promotional leaflet, "What is the Sea Organization and what does it do?", dated "2/12/1979".
• JCA-84. Hubbard, "Towards a Worthwhile Purpose", 1976.
• JCA-85. Hubbard, "Functions of the Sea Org", 26 April 1968.
• JCA-86. "New Sea Org Uniforms Enhance Ethics Presence", "High Winds", issue 7, 1987.
• JCA-87. W.B.Robertson, "Service Insignia", Flag Order 2327R, 16 January 1974.
• JCA-88. Church of Scientology International, Sea Organization "Contract of Employment", 1987.
• JCA-89. Church of Scientology International, What is Scientology?, 1992 edition, p.360.
• JCA-90. Hubbard, "The Code of a Sea Org Member", 1978.
• JCA-91. Hubbard, "Awards and Penalties", Policy Letter of 26 September 1967.
• JCA-92. Hubbard, "Penalties for Lower Conditions", Policy Letter of 18 October 1967, issue iv, published in Scientology Basic Staff Hat Book, number 1, p.26, Church of Scientology of California, East Grinstead, 1968.
• JCA-93. Hubbard, "Penalties for Lower Conditions", Policy Letter of 21 July 1968.
• JCA-94. Hubbard, "Titles of Address", Flag Order 87, 2 September 1967.
• JCA-95. Hubbard, "The Auditor", issue 41.
• JCA-96. Hubbard, Modern Management Technology Defined, Church of Scientology of California, 1976, definitions of "Rehabilitation Project Force" and "rehabilitation unit".
• JCA-97. as exhibit 96, definition of "Mud Box Brigade".
• JCA-98. City of Clearwater Commission Hearings, Re: Church of Scientology, 7 May 1982, testimony of David Ray, vol.3, pp.165-170.
• JCA-99. Team Share System, Sea Org Executive Directive 3490 Int, 24 July 1986.
• JCA-100. Clearwater Hearings, 7 May 1982, testimony of Casey Kelly, vol.3, pp.51-53.
• JCA-101. RPF Policy Checksheet, Flag Order 3434R-25RA, 25 July 1974.
• JCA-102. RPF Graduation Requirements Checklist, Flag Order 3434RC-56, 17 March 1980.
• JCA-103. Confessional Procedure, HCOB 30 November 1978, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol XII, Church of Scientology of California, Los Angeles, 1980 edition.
• JCA-104. HCOB Introspection Rundown - additional actions, 20 February 1974, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol. VIII, pp.260-261, Church of Scientology of California, Los Angeles, 1976.
• JCA-105. Sea Org HCO Ethics Order, AOSHUK 2543, Confidential Board of Investigation - Findings and Recommendations - Isolation Watch Heidi Degro, September 1993.
• JCA-106. The Independent, England, 31 January 1994, The Prisoners of Saint Hill.
• JCA-107. Hubbard, "Dianetics and Scientology compared to 19th Century practices", Bulletin of 29 November 1981.
• JCA-108. Hubbard, "Criminals and Psychiatry", Bulletin of 29 July 1980.
• JCA-109. Hubbard, "Scientology is a religion", Policy Letter of 6 March 1969, reprinted in The Organization Executive Course, volume 5, pp.289-290, 1974 printing.
• JCA-110. Hubbard, "Routine 3 - Heaven", Bulletin of 11 May 1963.
• JCA-111. Hubbard, "Confidential Resistive Cases - Former Therapy", Class VIII Bulletin of 23 September 1968,
• JCA-112. Hubbard, "Ethics Chits", Policy Letter of 1 July 1965, reprinted in The Organization Executive Course, vol.1, pp.703-704, 1991 edition.
• JCA-113. Hubbard, "Jokers and Degraders", Bulletin and Policy Letter of 5 February 1977, reprinted in The Organization Executive Course, volume 1, pp.822-823, 1991 edition.
• JCA-114. Hubbard, "A New Type of Crime", Policy Letter of 17 January 1979, reprinted in The Organization Executive Course, volume 1, pp.908-909, 1991 edition.
• JCA-115. Hubbard, "Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists", Policy Letter of 23 December 1965, re-revised 8 January 1991. reprinted in The Organization Executive Course, volume 1, pp.873-889, 1991 edition.
• JCA-116. Hubbard, "The Future of Scientology", "Ron's Journal 34", 13 March 1982.
• JCA-117. Hubbard, "Critics of Scientology", 5 November 1967, reissued as a Bulletin 27 August 1987, reprinted in "Impact" magazine, issue 15, pp.36-37.
• JCA-118. Heber Jentzsch letter of 7 April 1988.
• JCA-119. Hubbard, Electropsychometric Auditing - Operator's Manual, 1952.
• JCA-120. HCOB Interrogation (How to read an E-meter on a silent subject), 30 March 1960, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IV, pp.59-60, CSC, LA, 1976.
• JCA-121. Board Technical Bulletin Miscellaneous Reports, 7 November 1972R, Auditor Admin Series 20R, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IX, p.53, CSC, LA, 1976.
• JCA-122. HCOPL The Only Valid Security Check, 22 May 1961, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IV, pp.275-281, CSC, LA, 1976.
• JCA-123. Board Technical Bulletin Integrity Processing Series 1 Definitions, 4 December 1972R, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IX, pp.261-263, CSC, LA, 1976.
• JCA-124. Board Technical Bulletin Integrity Processing Series 16RA, Integrity Processing Info, 6 June 1968RA, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IX, pp.287-288.
• JCA-125. Hubbard, HCO Manual of Justice, HCO, London, 1959.
• JCA-126. HCOB Integrity Processing Series 10R, Integrity Processing Questions Must Be F/Ned, 13 December 1972R, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IX, p.278.
• JCA-127. Mary Sue Hubbard, Guardian Order 121669, Programme: Intelligence: Internal Security, 16 December 1969.
• JCA-128. Laurel Sullivan testimony, Church of Scientology of California v Armstrong, Los Angeles, case no. C 420 153, vol.19A, pp.3001-3004, 24 May 1984.
• JCA-129. Nancy Dincalci testimony, CSC v Armstrong, 29 May 1984, vol.20, pp.3531-3533, 3553, 3568, 3569.
• JCA-130. Kima Douglas testimony, CSC v Armstrong, 5 June 1984, vol.25, pp.4437-4439, 4460.
• JCA-131. testimony of Edward Walters, CSC v Armstrong, 29 May 1984, vol.20, p. 3585. (see also testimony of Ernest and Adelle Hartwell in the Clearwater Hearings, May 1982).
• JCA-132. HCOB Word Clearing, 24 June 1971, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IX, p.392, CSC, LA, 1976.
• JCA-133. HCOB Confused Ideas, 31 August 1971, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.VII, p.373, CSC, LA, 1976.
• JCA-134. HCOPL Sanity, 19 May 1970, The Management Series, vol.1, Bridge, LA, 1982.
• JCA-135. Board Technical Bulletin High Crime Checkouts and Technical OKs, 8 March 1975, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.IX, pp.99-101, CSC, LA, 1976.
• JCA-136. HCOPL Policies on Physical Healing, Insanity and Sources of Trouble, 27 October 1964R, Organization Executive Course, vol.1, 2nd edition, 1991.
• JCA-137. HCOPL Students Guide to Acceptable Behaviour, 15 December 1965.
• JCA-138. HCOB Expanded Green Form 40RD, 30 June 1971RD, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, vol.XII, pp.60-69, CSC, LA, 1980.
• JCA-139. Boards of Directors of the Churches of Scientology, "Ethics, Cancellation of Fair Game, more about", Policy Letter of 22 July 1980.
• JCA-140. Hubbard, "Ethics, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists, the Fair Game Law", Policy Letter of 1 March 1965,
• reprinted in the Scientology Basic Staff Hat Book, number 1, pp.40-44, 1968 edition.
• JCA-141. Hubbard, "Penalties for Lower Conditions", Policy Letter of 18 October 1967, reprinted in the Scientology Basic Staff Hat Book, number 1, p.26, Church of Scientology of California, East Grinstead, 1968.
• JCA-142. Hubbard, "Cancellation of Fair Game", Policy Letter of 21 October 1968.
• JCA-143. Leif Windle, Morris Budlong & Jane Kember, "Confidential Intelligence Course", Guardian Order of 9 September 1974.
• JCA-144. Sentencing memorandum of the United States of America, in USA v. Kember and Budlong, US District Court for the District of Columbia, criminal no. 78 401 (2) & (3).
• JCA-145. Church of Scientology International, "Cancellation of Issues on Suppressive Acts and PTSes", Policy Letter of 8 September 1983.
• JCA-146. Mr. Justice Latey in "B & G wards", Royal Courts of Justice, 23 July 1984.
• JCA-147. Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California, Court of Appeal of the State of California, civ.no.B023193, 18 July 1989 (upheld by the U,S. Supreme Court, 7 March 1994).
• JCA-148. Hubbard, "Dept of Government Affairs", Policy Letter of 15 August 1960,
• JCA-149. The Auditor, issue 31.
• JCA-150, Hubbard, Overcoming Ups and Downs in Life, "The Antisocial Personality", 1988 edition.JCA-151. Sue Porter, "Suppressive Persons and Suppressive Groups List", Sea Organization Flag Executive Directive, 25 July 1992.
• JCA-152. Miscavige, reported in International Scientology News, issue 31.
• JCA-153. Hubbard, "Ron's Journal, 1967", transcript of lecture, recorded 20 September 1967 (issued as a cassette tape recording in 1983).
• JCA-154. Sentencing Memorandum in USA v MSH et al, US District Court for the District of Columbia, criminal case no. 78-401, pp.1-4 & 14.
• JCA-155. ibid, p.69 (see also Stipulation of Evidence in this case, where the following co-conspirators or participants are named: Joseph Alesi (pp.98, 75); Don Alverzo (22, 89, 101f); Peeter Alvet (183, 244); Brian Andrus (231, 233, 241, 243, 251, 265); Michael Baum (146); Jim Douglas (249f); Nancy Douglas ("Pitts") (46, 70); Jim Fiducia (239); Janet Finn (183); Martin Greenberg (107, 133); Richard Kimmel (98); Paul Klopper (peripheral involvement) (157, 265); Gary Lawrence (247); Joe Lisa (35, 200); John Luke (247); Lynn McNeill (45); Arthur "Artie" Maren (51, 170); John Matoon (248); Carla Moxon (22); Rick Moxon (presumably Kendrick Moxon, attorney) (197, 213f); Jimmy Mulligan (108, 180); george Pilat (247); Lexie Ramirez (143); Bruce Raymond (aka Randy Windment) (131f, 212, 251); Chuck Reese (244, 250); Tom Reitze (Snow White I/C) (142); Mary Rezzonico (107, 170); Michael Taylor (62); Peggy Tyson (71); Bruce Ullman (22, 176); Hugh Wilhere (150); Lt warren Young (San Diego police) (205).
• JCA-156 HCOPL The Ethics of Scientology Its Use and Purpose Being a Scientologist, 27 March 1965.
• JCA-157. HCOPL Handling the Public Individual, 16 April 1965, issue III, Organization Execuitve Course, vol.1, 2nd edition, Bridge, LA, 1991.
• JCA-158. What is Scientology?, 2nd edition, p.245, Bridge, LA, 1992.
• JCA-159. Declaration of Hon. James M. Ideman, United States District Court, Central District of California, in Religious Technology Center v Scott et al (no. CV 85-711 JMI [Bx]) and Religious Technology Center v Wollersheim et al (no. CV 85-7197 JMI [Bx]), filed 21 June 1993.
• JCA-160. James B.Stewart, jr, Scientology's War Against Judges, American Lawyer, December 1980.
• JCA-161. The Pledge to Mankind.
• JCA-162. Impact, issue 3, 1985, pp.19 & 32.
• JCA-163. Conway and Siegelman, Information Disease - Have Cults Created a New Mental Illness?, Science Digest, January 1982.
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Re: Journalism: Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard's Brainchild

Postby admin » Sun Jul 21, 2019 8:00 am

How Scientology Got to Bob Minton
by Thomas C. Tobin and Joe Childs
Times Staff Writers
November 2, 2009

Image
Bob Minton pickets in Clearwater. At the time, Marty Rathbun, identified as a “top Scientology official,’’ said this of Minton: “I worry about this guy because he’s deranged.”

Robert S. Minton seemed to surface out of nowhere in late 1997.

• A retired investment banker and millionaire from New England, he began to show up at anti-Scientology demonstrations in Boston and Clearwater. He gave millions to groups critical of the church.
• He became the money man behind a wrongful death lawsuit by the family of Lisa McPherson, whose unexplained death at Scientology's Clearwater mecca threw the church into crisis.
• Minton quickly became the Church of Scientology's No. 1 nemesis.
• "I felt that the little guys needed some help," he once said. "I'm putting my money where my mouth is."

Much of the church's response to Minton has been documented — the legal onslaught, the skirmishes that sought to bait him, get him in trouble and torpedo his credibility.

Twice he was arrested and charged after minor scuffles with Scientologists while picketing church properties. Once, he fired a shotgun into the air after Scientologists appeared at his New Hampshire farm.

Early on, the church dispatched private investigators to talk to his son, his brother, his wife's family in England, his elderly mother in Florida.

Still, Minton wouldn't go away.

Now former church officials Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder reveal the other tactics they used.

Shortly after Minton burst onto the scene, the pair arranged two meetings with the millionaire to introduce themselves and glean his motives. Both times they brought a tool worthy of James Bond. They set it on the table.

"It was a black briefcase with a small pinhole camera hole and a small mic hole," Rathbun said. "And so we recorded the entire thing without the guy's knowledge."

This and other accounts illustrate how far Scientology was willing to go to stop Minton, who, in a stunning reversal five years later, ended up testifying in court on the church's behalf.

That part of the story begins with David Lubow, the same private investigator the church used just a few years earlier to infiltrate a group of Scientologists in Las Vegas.

Rathbun and Rinder said they turned to Lubow in the late 1990s to look into Minton's financial affairs overseas. Lubow deployed to the capitals of Europe, dropping aliases and recruiting helpers to make Minton think he was being investigated by multiple agents, Rathbun said.

"He was very elaborate," Rathbun said of Lubow. "He's actually very good at what he does.''

Rinder said the operation fit with the directives of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who wrote that if a person accuses you of something, they themselves are guilty of those crimes.

"Minton was accusing the church of having bought off the IRS and gained false tax-exempt status," Rinder said. "So, the focus was: Find his financial crimes.''

In 2001, Lubow returned from overseas with loads of information, including details on an alleged money-laundering scheme involving Minton and a Nigerian dictator that was never proved. Lubow wanted direction.

He said he had been dealing with personnel at OSA, the Office of Special Affairs, headed at the time by Rinder. The office served as the church's legal, intelligence and public affairs arm, but the people under Rinder didn't have the authority to give Lubow the freedom he needed.

Rinder and Rathbun corrected that problem, bringing Lubow to Clearwater for a meeting. They said they went to the parking lot of a bank on Cleveland Street, not wanting to risk someone spotting him entering a Scientology building. The three convened for hours in a car.

"We got the guy focused like a laser beam," Rathbun said.

Rinder said he told Lubow not to take orders from anyone else at OSA and to report only to Rathbun and him.

"Here is your order," Rinder said he told the PI. "Get the goods on Minton to shut him the f--- up."

By the spring of 2002, Scientology had painted Minton into a corner.

On the legal front, the church pulled Minton into its efforts to have the lawsuit by McPherson's family dismissed.

During a memorable court hearing on April 19, 2002, Minton took the stand and made the jaw-dropping statement that the plaintiff's attorney, Ken Dandar, was a "lying thief" who was "only in this for money."

Dandar had considered Minton a strong ally for years. He couldn't believe it.

"This man I adore, he was a saint," the Tampa lawyer said at the time. "It's like stabbing me in the heart. I'm just sitting there going, 'What did they do to you?' "

Also, the millionaire now had a legal problem. He previously testified under oath that he had given $1 million or $1.3 million to the McPherson family's legal effort. Now he said in an affidavit it was $2 million.

The judge in the case, Susan Schaeffer, made noises about perjury and wondered aloud if someone should read Minton his rights.

What had gone on behind the scenes to change Minton's stripes?

Rathbun and Rinder told how it was done.

In the weeks before Minton's public turnaround, they say the church met with him some 20 times to discuss dropping the McPherson case and compensating Scientology. Church officials said Minton had caused them to spend $28 million to defend against his efforts.

At one of the meetings, Rinder said, he presented Minton with what Lubow had found about the millionaire's finances.

"There were things that, really, he was worried about and had caused problems for him in the investigation that we had done," Rinder said, declining to give more detail. "I'm just going to leave it at that."

Dandar said he can't talk about the case, citing the terms of the 2004 settlement agreement.

But he said in 2002 that Minton called him in a panic after one of his meetings with the church. Minton begged him to drop the lawsuit, Dandar said at the time.

At one of the private meetings, Rinder issued an ultimatum, saying the church knew he had lied under oath. He demanded that Minton come clean.

"If you are not willing to tell the truth, we are wasting our time and we'll just keep going after you," Rinder said he told Minton.

"And what we were going after him on was where he got and had earned his money.''

Later, in Schaeffer's courtroom, Minton said he lied, at Dandar's direction. In a subsequent interview, he said he feared being sent to jail for perjury.

Dandar has denied Minton's accusation and charged that the perjury scare was a charade. The church had something serious on Minton, he said at the time.

"Here's a man who put in six years and $10 million and all of a sudden he's having an about-face? All you have to do is apply common sense."

Minton could not be reached for comment.

He had become an anti-Scientology crusader in the mid 1990s after learning about the church's efforts to keep its materials from being publicized on the Internet. The more he read, he said in interviews, the more he became concerned about Scientology practices that, to him, seemed to violate its members' civil and human rights.

But after years spent on anti-Scientology causes, he left the public stage as quickly as he had arrived, thoroughly subdued.

When you fought Scientology, Minton once said, "It was like the Terminator was after you."

Rinder, who once described Minton's actions as "despicable and disgusting," said he now considers him a friend.

Asked to comment about the church's use of Lubow to investigate Minton, Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis did not address the case specifically but talked about the church's use of private investigators in general. He said in a statement that the church doesn't hire PIs, its lawyers do, and they operate within legal and ethical bounds.

If Rinder and Rathbun abused anyone, "they are the ones to blame," Davis wrote. "Other church officials were not involved in their duties."
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