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Software Vault: The Diamond Collection
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KIM03.TXT
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1995-02-18
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In Part 1, I described my first contact with Scientology. In part 2,
I detoured to examine the emotional impact of leaving the cult. I now
look at my first "service".
MY EXPERIENCE OF THE PURIFICATION RUNDOWN:
Having signed my 5 year contract, and full of enthusiasm to "save the
planet", I went into Cape Town Org the following evening. G told me that my
first step was the Purif. (Purification Rundown, an excersize, vitamin and
sauna program designed to flush out drugs and radiation from the body). I
was a bit skeptical about this - how did this address spiritual issues? G
explained that spiritual progress was impeded by residue drugs and
radiation. I bought it (in both senses of the word, it cost me R1500).
My ex left for Johannesburg for 3 weeks to complete a work project. Two
nights later, after a medical check-up by a specifed doctor, I arrived to
begin the Purif. I was given a vast quantity of vitamins, including niacin,
and told to go jogging until I felt a prickly sensation. I did this, and
then returned.
G was waiting for me, and said : "Right. You are the new HAS."
"The WHAT?"
"HAS - Hubbard Area Secretary. Read this - it's a Hat write-up
(job description) - while you're in the sauna. Spend at least 4
hours in the sauna, and come out when you're feeling good - take
water and salt."
Somewhat overwhelmed, I trundled off to the sauna, and started reading my
Hat write-up. I didn't understand a word of it. Jargon and terms
everywhere. I started feeling panicky as a result. Five hours later, I still
didn't "feel good", but gave up and went home.
The following night I returned, and continued the program. When in the
sauna, I was still trying to make sense of the "Hat write-up" when I started
feeling dizzy. I took water and salt. And then I passed out. I was told that
I was in the sauna like that for an hour. I "came to" with a lot of shouting
and someone hosing me down with water - I remember the panic on the faces of
the staff. Clearly something had gone badly wrong. The next day, people at
my place of employment remarked on how pale I was, and I felt shaky the
whole day.
I returned to the Org that night and stated my reluctance to continue the
program. Eventually, I agreed to continue on the understanding that they
would check on me regularly to see that something like that did not occur
again. I continued for another 5 nights, and nothing much happened. They
attested me (a declaration, made on the e-meter that you have completed a
Scn course or program), and asked me to write a success story. I didn't want
to, but they said that I had to if I wanted to attest to completion, so I
wrote down something about "feeling cleaned up", and that was the end of the
Purif.
G had left, in the meantime, having completed his "mission". I said that I
was not ready to go on staff, I needed to find out more about Scientology.
They were not at all happy about this, but eventually agreed to let me go.
WHERE THEY WENT WRONG:
In fairness, I must point out that they did not apply their OWN policy
correctly. Firstly, I should have been given the Purification Rundown Manual
to read before going on the program. I should have had at least one other
person doing the program with me. I should not have been given a "Hat write-
up" to read in the sauna. A lot of people have done the Purif - some really
enjoyed it, others were indifferent, and others did not like it at all.
In mitigation on MY responsibility in the issue was the fact that I was
brand new, and did not know that there was a manual to ask to see. I only
found that out later.
ABOUT THE PURIF:
I am not a doctor, or a scientist, so I am not going to attempt a scientific
study here - others have addressed this issue more adequately than I can.
However, to my non-scientific mind, the whole credibility of the Purif rests
on the premise that Niacin flushes out radiation and drugs.
Niacin is nicotinic acid - a vitamin of the B group, which is prepared
SYNTHETICALLY in a process that includes the oxidation of nicotine. The
toxic effect is the DILATION OF THE VEINS, and this leads to hot flushes -
high dosages also lead to abdominal cramps, tiredness and skin blemishes.
Hubbard had this to say about niacin:
"Niacin's biochemical reaction is my own, private, personal discovery. In
the middle of the 1950's I was doing work on radiation, and I worked out
that it must be niacin that operated on radiation...Niacin runs out
radiation. The outpoint in medical thinking has been that they thought
Niacin itself turned on a flush. Niacin all by its lonesome does not turn
on any flush. What it starts to do is immediately run out sunburn or
radiation."
- From HCOB 1978RB, reissued 31 July 1985, "The Purification
Rundown replaces the sweat program."
QUESTIONS:
No-where in this, or other bulletins does Hubbard explain exactly HOW he
reached this conclusion - he tells us "he worked it out", but HOW?
Where is the evidence and proof of this? I am willing to bet that if you
gave someone niacin, who had NEVER been exposed to radiation, they would
still turn on a flush, by the mere fact that their veins had been dilated.
Also, the fact that something DID go wrong with my particular program,
even though it was "off-policy" (not a correct application of Hubbard's
policy) raises this question: how can amateurs be allowed to administer
this program? Why are there no safety precautions? Who is to say that this
program is "safe"? Hubbard, who was neither a doctor, a biochemist nor a
scientist, is the sole author of this program. Apparently doctors
scrutinised the program, and found it to be rigorous, but not harmful.
But again, in the hands of unqualified personnel......
More to follow in Part 4.
Kim Baker
Kim Baker
Cape Town, South Africa E-Mail: Kim@uctlib.uct.ac.za
______________________________________________________________________
"Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man. It's insiduous. It can get
hold of you without you even knowing it."
- From "Nineteen-eighty-four", George Orwell