Inside Scientology
Page 44
3. The Franchised Faith
For the early history of Scientology, I relied upon the recollections of Jana Daniels and Alan Walter, whom I interviewed personally, as well as Helen O'Brien, as found in her book Dianetics in Limbo. For a less subjective view, I relied upon Atack's A Piece of Blue Sky and Miller's Barefaced Messiah. The Australian Report of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology, while certainly not objective, proved to be a quite insightful study of Scientology in Australia, enabling me not only to glean the practices the board found objectionable but also to discern the hatred and fear that Scientology inspired.
I was particularly interested in Scientology's place in Cold War America and found great insight in Stephen J. Whitfield's The Culture of the Cold War, as well as Hugh Urban's paper "Fair Game." I also relied on Hubbard's FBI files, accessible through the Freedom of Information Act; his correspondence, made available by Armstrong and Letkeman; and particularly his myriad Hubbard Communication Office (HCO) bulletins and policy letters of 1954–65, which are too many to be mentioned here, but which are cited in the notes and collected in Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology and The Original LRH Executive Directives.
Much can be said about Scientology as a business, and for help in understanding Hubbard's overall strategy, I relied upon personal interviews with Hubbard's former aide Ken Urqhart, with Alan Walter, and with the later Scientology executives Chris and Nancy Many, as well as with Sandra Mercer, a longtime Scientologist and onetime church staff member. For fine-grain detail in legal matters, I read articles in theWashington Post pertaining to Scientology's lawsuit against that newspaper, concerning violation of trade secrets. To understand Scientology's own view, I read stories on the protection of trade secrets published in the church's magazine Freedom.
[>] "important new material": O'Brien, Dianetics in Limbo, p. 49.
[>] "deep and marvelous insight": Ibid., p. 55.
[>] It was, essentially, a lie detector: Scientologists routinely deny that the E-meter bears any relationship to the lie detector. Nonetheless, like lie detectors, E-meters register the "electrodermal response," or changes in the conductivity of the surface of the skin, in people undergoing emotional stress, conscious or unconscious. Lie detectors, however, are much more sophisticated and also monitor changes in heartbeat and perspiration.
[>] "Knowing How to Know": What Is Scientology?, Church of Scientology, 1978 ed.; also "Frequently Asked Questions" at www.scientology.org, which states, "Scientology, which means 'knowing how to know,' is a religion based on the works of L. Ron Hubbard."
[>] "exact anatomy of the human mind": Hubbard, DMSMH, p. 590.
[>] "theta beings": Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 129. A full description of "theta beings" can be found in chapters 2 and 3 of Hubbard's Scientology: A History of Man.
[>] Hubbard had begun: "The Story of Dianetics and Scientology," lecture by L. Ron Hubbard, delivered on October 18, 1958.
[>] Even Hubbard's onetime lieutenant: Charles Platt's interview with Van Vogt, as cited in Charles Platt, Dream Makers: The Uncommon People Who Write Science Fiction. In fact, Van Vogt was president of the California Association of Dianetic Auditors.
[>] "Perhaps we could call it": Letter from Hubbard to Helen O'Brien, April 10, 1953.
"Churches were by far": Stephen J. Whitfield, The Culture of the Cold War, pp. 83–84.
[>] the most popular therapist: Ibid., p. 84.
[>] Peale's best-selling book: New York Times Best-Seller List; Publisher's Weekly Best-Seller List.
[>] religious fellowship: The Aberee (a newsletter published ten times a year from 1954 to 1965 by Dianetics followers Alphia and Agnes Hart), July and August 1954. A later reference to the HASI as a religious fellowship can be found in Hubbard, "Religion," HCO Policy Letter, October 29, 1962.
[>] "Hubbard had learned from": Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 139.
[>] "If advertised products don't have": Hubbard, HCO Policy Letter, August 14, 1963.
[>] Hubbard instructed one of his: Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 226. Hubbard also described his "three methods of dissemination," including the "I will talk to anyone" technique, in HCO Operational Bulletin No. 14, January 24, 1956.
[>] A similar ad was used: Hubbard, HCO Operational Bulletin No. 14, January 24, 1956.
[>] Another technique Hubbard advocated: Ibid.
[>] "The law can be used": "The Scientologist: A Manual on the Dissemination of Material." This text first appeared in Scientology's magazine Ability in March 1954 and was later reprinted in Hubbard, Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology.
[>] Congresses could be highly lucrative: Paulette Cooper, The Scandal of Scientology, p. 108.
[>] In 1956, the Church of Scientology's gross receipts: Founding Church of Scientology v. U.S. No. 226–61, U.S. Court of Claims, July 16, 1969.
[>] "The prosperity of any organization": Hubbard, HCO Policy Letter, February 6, 1968.
[>] From the 10 percent tithe: Founding Church of Scientology v. U.S. No. 226–61, July 16, 1969.
[>] "the McDonald's hamburger": Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 138.
[>] "a symbol which assures": Church attorney Laurence E. Heller, in a transcript of the Mission Holder's Conference, San Francisco, CA, October 17, 1982, as issued by Executive Director Guillaume Lesever, Church of Scientology International, Inc., sc-i-r-s-ology.com/documents/1982-10-17missionholders.html.
[>] "trade secrets": The crux of Scientology's various lawsuits against its critics on the Internet and against such publications as theWashington Post has been media publication of its confidential OT (Operating Thetan) doctrine, which Scientology has called one of its "trade secrets." A 1995 article titled "Freedom of Speech at Risk in Cyberspace," in Scientology's Freedom magazine (volume 28, issue 1), asks, "When was the last time the formula for Coca-Cola ran in the morning paper?" and goes on to equate the secret soft-drink formula with Scientology's "sacred and confidential religious scriptures," which, it notes, "are also subject to legal protection under copyright and trade secret law." For more information on Scientology's trade secrets argument, see Religious Technology Center v. Netcom On-Line Communication Services, Inc., 907 F. Supp. 1361 (NDCal. 1995).
[>] "The body is normally sweet-smelling": Hubbard, Science of Survival, p. 146.
[>] "a cold-blooded and factual account": Hubbard: A History of Man, p. 3.
[>] "Can you imagine a clam": Ibid., p. 33.
[>] "One such victim, after hearing": Ibid., p. 28.
[>] He explained that thetans: For Hubbard's description of "implant stations," including those on Mars, and what happens there, see A History of Man, pp. 78–79.
[>] "Communist-connected personnel": Letter from Hubbard to the FBI, July 29, 1955, FBI file #131.
[>] In one 1955 missive: Letter from Hubbard to the FBI, September 7, 1955, FBI file #132.
[>] "Appears mental": FBI memo of October 11, 1957, as cited in Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 221.
[>] "appeared to be a Communist manual": Letter from Hubbard to the FBI, December 16, 1955, file 133.
[>] "since it lacks documentation": Letter from FBI SAC in Los Angeles to J. Edgar Hoover, April 17, 1956, file 141.
[>] It was widely assumed that: "All About Radiation, by a Nuclear Physicist and a Medical Doctor," Publications Organization, East Grinstead, 1957, 1967.
[>] The text promoted a vitamin: Ibid., p. 124.
[>] In 1958, the FDA: Roy Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom: A Sociological Analysis of Scientology, p. 190.
[>] "holes appear in [the soap] bubble": O'Brien, Dianetics in Limbo, p. 70.
[>] "The tremendous appeal": Ibid., p. 72.
[>] "the joy and frankness": Ibid., p. vii.
[>] "As soon as we became responsible": Ibid., p. 73.
[>] "one of the best auditors": Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 147.
[>] "A Scientologist is heavily": Corydon, L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?, p. 149.
[>] "incredible
dynamism, a disarming, magnetic": Cyril Vosper, The Mind Benders, p. 42.
[>] "Scientology flourished": Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 3.
[>] "Man is now faced": Hubbard, DMSMH, p. 488.
[>] "the Santa Claus pack": Saturday Evening Post, March 21, 1964.
[>] One year earlier, in 1963: Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom, p. 191; also, George Malko, Scientology: The Now Religion, p. 75.
[>] "represent, suggest and imply": Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom, p. 192, and Malko, Scientology, p. 76.
[>] "Scientology is a delusional belief": Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C., "Conclusion," in The Report of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology, chapter 30. The Anderson Report can be read in full at www.xenu.net/archive/audit/andrhome.html.
[>] "For some, ... Scientology's conflict": Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom, p. 214.
[>] "From that moment on": Hubbard, "Keeping Scientology Working," HCO Policy Letter, February 7, 1965.
4. The Bridge to Total Freedom
A great deal of this chapter relies on the recollections of Jeff Hawkins, a member and official of the Church of Scientology for close to forty years. To tell the story of Jeff's growing involvement in Scientology in the 1960s, and of Scientology's overall evolution and cultural outlook during the 1960s, I relied primarily on four lengthy in-person interviews with Hawkins in the spring of 2007, as well as numerous follow-up phone calls and well over two hundred e-mail exchanges through the summer of 2010. Other essential sources of information on Scientology in the 1960s were Nancy and Chris Many, Jim Dinalci, Mike Henderson, and Dan Koon, all of whom I interviewed personally, and with whom I also conducted subsequent, and lengthy, e-mail exchanges.
For a less subjective view on the era, I referred primarily to Paulette Cooper's The Scandal of Scientology, George Malko's Scientology: The Now Religion, Stephen Kent's From Slogans to Mantras, Roy Wallis's The Road to Total Freedom, and L. Ron Hubbard's own copious writing and taped lectures, notably his policy letters and executive directives. As in prior chapters, biographical and narrative history pertaining to Hubbard and his adventures was drawn from A Piece of Blue Sky and Barefaced Messiah, among other sources.
The description of Scientology's attempted takeover of the National Association of Mental Health is drawn primarily from C. H. Rolph's Believe What You Like, as well as Wallis's The Road to Total Freedom.
[>] "Wherever you go": Malko, Scientology: The Now Religion, p. 7.
[>] STEP INTO THE WORLD: Cooper, The Scandal of Scientology, p. 47.
[>] "drugless psychedelic": Malko, Scientology: The Now Religion, p. 9.
[>] "After drugs comes Scientology": Recollection by the ex-Scientologist Jim Dinalci of a poster he saw near the University of California, Berkeley, circa 1969, told to me in an interview, September 20, 2007.
[>] "be a member of Scientology": Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom, p. 162.
[>] "raw meat": Hubbard, HCO Bulletin, January 16, 1968.
[>] "Beautiful": Cooper, The Scandal of Scientology, p. 14, and interviews with Hawkins, Many, and others.
[>] "step into the exciting world": Cooper, The Scandal of Scientology, p. 13; Malko, Scientology: The Now Religion, p. 7.
[>] More recently, the Kabbalah: Ruth La Ferla, "Objects of Jewish Devotion Evolve into a Fashion Fad," New York Times, June 29, 2004.
[>] Leonard Cohen, Cass Elliot: Malko, Scientology: The Now Religion, p. 6.
[>]even Jim Morrison: Ibid., p. 7.
[>] "Scientology can do more": William Burroughs, Naked Scientology, p. 72, citing a statement made in the Los Angeles Free Press, March 6, 1970.
[>] Charles Manson, for one: Vincent Bugliosi, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, pp. 176–78, 318, 610.
[>] At the close of 1967: The $1 million figure is an approximation taken from what Atack, in A Piece of Blue Sky (p. 170), writes was a sum of £457,277 for the year ending April 1967 (or roughly £9,000 per week).
[>] averaged $80,000: Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 171. By August 1967, "Saint Hill was taking in as much as £40,000 a week, almost five times its income of the previous year."
[>] "run-of the-mill, garden-variety": Lecture, "Creative Admiration Processing," January 10, 1953; Saint Hill Special Briefing Course-82 6611C29.
[>] Enturbulated was a word: Hubbard, Scientology and Dianetics Technical Dictionary, p. 144.
[>] "rationality toward the greatest": Ibid., p. 146.
[>] "Conditions of Existence": Ibid., p. 86. This refers to the so-called ethics conditions. In a more general sense, Scientology defines three basic "conditions of existence" that define life: "beingness," "doingness," and "havingness" (ibid., p. 87).
[>] He had resigned: Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 167; Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 263; Cooper, The Scandal of Scientology, p. 110.
[>] He was "Fabian": On the recording of "Ron's Journal '67," Hubbard advised his followers that "so long as we are Fabian—elusive—we grow strong." Jon Atack, in an online essay, "General Report on Scientology" (home.snafu.de/tilman/j/general.html#JCA-84), takes it a bit further: "Hubbard asserted that the Sea Org is 'fabian,' and redefined that word to mean 'using stratagem and delay to wear out an opponent.' Hubbard wanted the Sea Org to be seen as 'a determined but elusive and sometimes frightening group.'"
[>] To ingratiate himself: Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 259.
[>] he had come to Africa: Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 166; "Millionaire in Bumi Hills Hotel Deal," Sunday Mail Reporter (Rhodesia), May 22, 1966.
[>] refused to renew his visa: "U.S. Financier Is Refused Residence Permit," Bulawayo Chronicle, July 14, 1966; "Financier Must Quit Rhodesia," Rhodesia Herald, July 14, 1966.
[>] David Ziff, an heir: According to Hawkins and other former Scientologists, Ziff was the son of William B. Ziff Sr., founder of Ziff-Davis, and a brother of William Ziff Jr., who built the company into an empire, publishing such titles as Car and Driver and Popular Mechanics. Ziff's 2006 obituary in theNew York Times, however, made no mention of David Ziff, nor has his name come up in other references to the Ziff family, possibly due to his long estrangement over Scientology.
[>] "We are rolling up": Hubbard, Executive Directive 42 INT, November 4, 1968.
[>] had isolated the enemy: Hubbard, "Stability," Executive Directive 51 INT, November 24, 1968.
[>] "In all the broad Universe": "Ron's Journal '67."
[>] "undesirable alien" ... "pseudo-philosophical cult": Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, pp. 182–83; Enquiry into the Practice and Effects of Scientology (The Foster Report), by Sir John Foster, 1971, www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/audit/fosthome.html.
[>] carrying banners that said: Wallis, The Road to Total Freedom, p. 204; C. H. Rolph, Believe What You Like, pp. 52, 102.
[>] "We are masters of IQ": Hubbard, "The Special Zone Plan: The Scientologist's Role in Life," HCO Bulletin, June 23, 1960.
[>] "If attacked on some vulnerable": Hubbard, "Dept. of Govt. Affairs," HCO Policy Letter, August 15, 1960.
[>] "To take over absolutely": Hubbard, CS-G "Confidential: Intelligence Actions, Covert Intelligence, Data Collection," December 2, 1969.
[>] "safeguard Scientology orgs": Hubbard, "The Guardian," HCO Policy Letter, March 1, 1966.
[>] "riots and disaffection": Order of the Day, November 18, 1970. Hubbard accused Time's medical and health editor of being a member of the World Federation of Mental Health, and also went on, in this issue, to accuse much of the American press of being Communist.
5. Travels with the Commodore
The primary sources for this chapter were Jeff Hawkins, Neville Chamberlin, Alan Walter, Mike Henderson, Glenn Samuels, Gerry Armstrong, Gale Irwin, DeDe Reisdorf, and Karen Gregory, who provided personal recollections of life in the Sea Org and aboard the Apollo. For a less personal view of Hubbard's years at sea, I turned to Miller's Barefaced Messiah and Atack's A Piece of Blue Sky, as well as to L. Ron Hubbard's policy statements and bulletins issued in the 1960s and 1970s, his book
Mission into Time, and several other Scientology publications.
I gleaned a fuller understanding of the Xenu and OT 3 myth through discussions with J. Gordon Melton at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and through lengthy conversations with Jeff Hawkins, Chris Many, and several other former members, as well as with Mike Rinder. James Lewis's book Scientology also offered an excellent scholarly perspective.
For insight into Scientology's marketing strategy, I relied upon Scientology's "sales bible," Surefire Sales Closing Techniques (Parker Publishing Company, 1971), and L. Ron Hubbard's compilation of sales-related bulletins, contained in the Church of Scientology's "Hard Sell Reference Pack." I also had the good fortune to have access to a trove of Scientology ads, circulars, brochures, and other written material made available to me primarily through the J. Gordon Melton Collection at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
[>] a three-story, 3,278-ton behemoth: Hubbard, Modern Management Technology Defined (referred to as "The Admin Dictionary"), p. 25; Cooper, The Scandal of Scientology, p. 51.
[>] "aristocracy of Scientology": Flag Order 137, The Sea Organization, September 12, 1967.
[>] "My crew were sixteen men": Sunday Mirror, December 24, 1967, as cited in Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 174.
[>] "My first thought was, this": Miller, Barefaced Messiah, p. 283.
[>] "Don't explain. Penetrate": Hubbard, "Dissemination Tips," HCO Bulletin, September 15, 1959.
[>] a technique he'd picked up: Hubbard was particularly captivated by so-called super-salesman Les Dane, whose 1971 book, Surefire Sales Closing Techniques, became required reading for all Scientology registrars and other sales staff. Included in the book are instructions on how to use applied psychology when dealing with customers and how to "tag team" or "double team" a prospective buyer, which is a common tactic used in Scientology organizations, particularly with reluctant prospects.
[>] "more or less in a hypnotic daze": Hubbard, HCO Policy Letter, September 26, 1979.