The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his073/cult13.arj/CULT13.TXT

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                      THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY

"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous.  If a man really wanted to
make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own
religion." - L. Ron Hubbard

"Have Increased Confidence In Yourself!"  Call the Dianetics Hotline,
1-800-FOR TRUTH  (1-800-367-8788)

.    This advertisement, or something a lot like it, can be found in
the Personals in some local newspapers.  Several television networks
carry advertisements for two books called "Dianetics" and "Self-
Analysis."  Both are written by a man named L. Ron Hubbard.  Both
promise better mental health.  If you walk down the city streets, you
might be accosted by men and women in businesslike attire who offer to
give you free "personality analysis" tests.  Though they might not say
it, all of them are promoting the same thing - a vast, wealthy, and
dangerous underground empire called the Church of Scientology.

                               ORIGINS

.    Lafeyette Ronald Hubbard, founder of Dianetics and later the
Church of Scientology, was born in Tilden, Nebraska, in 1911.  During
World War II, he served as a naval officer in the Pacific and was even
involved with naval intelligence for a short time.  He achieved
moderate success as a science fiction writer; a trip to the local
bookstore will probably reveal some of his books on the shelf.  His
last work, "Mission Earth," is a huge, 10-volume epic about aliens
trying to take over the world.

.    Hubbard, at times, has claimed exaggerated accomplishments, such
as a Ph.D. from a renowned quack diploma mill and expertise in nuclear
engineering.  In reality, however, he never even obtained a bachelor's
degree in physics.

.    Scientology's origins can be traced back to Dianetics, but its
early history is largely unknown.  Hubbard apparently was somewhat
familiar with Freudian psychoanalytic ideas, such as the concept of
the influence of the subconscious on adult behavior and the effects of
repressing traumatic events.  What is known is that in the late 1940s
he befriended John Campbell, another writer and editor of the popular
ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION magazine.  Campbell, interested in
Hubbard's ideas, studied them and eventually claimed to have had his
sinusitis "cured" by it - at least for a while.  Campbell immediately
started promoting Dianetics in the May 1950 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION
issue, and demand for more information mushroomed so much that Hubbard
soon published "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Heath" that
same year.  It became a best-seller, and Hubbard even founded the
Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in late 1950 as well and became a
popular lecturer.

.    The movement spread quickly, but Hubbard had little control over
it, as many followers of Dianetics organized into local groups rather
than linking with him, resulting in variations and twists in Dianetics
all over the nation.  Also, popular interest in Dianetics began to
wane, and in 1951, the Foundation suffered a financial crisis.  Many
members of the Board of Directors resigned, including Hubbard himself,
who went to Cuba and returned to the United States in 1952.

.    Hubbard then dealt with these trends in two ways.  First, through
a prolonged struggle that involved much correspondence and eventually
bitter feelings, he purged the movement of "amateurs," "heretics," and
"revisionists," consolidating control over the "licensing" of persons
who could formally claim expertise in Dianetics.  Hubbard could now
control who taught Dianetics and how it was taught.  Second, a lot of
disciples had already reached the stage of "clear" (see "Beliefs" for
details"), which was the highest stage in Dianetics.  Hubbard then
established the Hubbard Association of Scientology in Phoenix,
Arizona, where his parents lived.  Notions of reincarnation,
extraterrestrial life, and more complex levels of emotional and
spiritual health were incorporated into Hubbard's belief system,
serving as expansions to the more purely psychological Dianetics.

.    In 1953, the Church of Scientology was incorporated.  In 1954,
Hubbard officially opened the first church in Washington, D.C.  The
organization then applied for and received tax-exempt status as the
Founding Church of Scientology in 1955.  In 1959, church headquarters
were moved to the 57-acre Saint Hill Manor estate in East Grimstead,
Sussex, England.  Its former owner was the Maharajah of Jaipur.  Today
it still retains its tax-exempt status, although it has been
challenged in several states.

.    After the mid-60's, L. Ron Hubbard's leadership role in
Scientology declined in prominence, although he was still firmly in
control of Scientology.  On the other hand, his third wife, Mary Sue,
played an increasingly more important role in the movement, as did
Hubbard's daughter, Diana, and his son, Quentin, both from his third
marriage.

.    In 1980, the membership of Scientology was said to be 3,000,000
in America and 236,000 in England.

                               BELIEFS

.    The basic tenets of Scientology are rather simple: Each human has
a soul, referred to in Scientology circles as a "thetan."  Eons ago,
the individual thetan was a godlike being, but gradually fell from his
divine status through experimenting with corporeal human form (for the
purpose of pure diversion) and forgetting his higher origins, being
trapped on earth in his own delusions of mortality.  Scientology tries
to remove the illusion of mortality from the thetan and teach him of
his ancient origins.

.    Hubbard made a distinction between the "analytic mind" (the human
consciousness) and the "reactive mind" (the subconscious).  Under
severe stress, according to Dianetics, the analytic mind, which
regulates the person's everyday actions, breaks down or malfunctions
temporarily, thus allowing the reactive mind to record details of the
traumatic experience such as sounds, sights, sensations of touch, etc.
These emotionally charged experiences are known as "engrams," and
everyone has them.  In fact, the individual person (known at this
point as a "pre-clear") even has engrams from past lives that remain
in the thetan as he passes from one body to another, and those engrams
can prevent people from remembering their past lives and reaching full
potential in life.  Engrams can also be picked up in the womb; for
example, if the mother were to be hurt in a car wreck, an engram would
be implanted in the embryo's mind.  To start working back towards
godhood, the pre-clear must remove all engrams from his mind by means
of the exercises created by Dianetics, which include "auditing
sessions" and "power processing" courses that claim to raise a
person's IQ.  Both are very expensive (an auditing session costs
around $150 for one hour), but both are considered necessary to remove
all flaws from the human mind.

.    In an auditing session, the subject must "relive" the engrams
that are in his mind by going through a sort of past-life regression.
As the auditor speaks with the pre-clear in hopes of triggering the
engrams, the subject might stumble across one of them and expound on
it, usually saying what has been picked up by the reactive mind during
the trauma.  When the engram is fully relived, it ceases to have power
and is erased.

.    Once all engrams are erased, the thetan is now considered
"clear," a term named after the button on the calculator that erases
all previous calculations.  His slate has been wiped clean, and he is
now free to start working towards immortality again by practicing
higher disciplines that will re-educate him about his archaic origins
in space.  As he learns more and more about his past, he will become
an "Operating Thetan," or OT.  There are six levels ranging from OT-1
to OT-6, the highest of Scientology disciplines.  Hubbard, however,
was said to be working on OT-7 or OT-8 a few years before his
disappearance.

.    Scientology has invented its own complex language full of terms
unfamiliar to outsiders.  In addition to engrams, thetans, power
processing, analytic minds, reactive minds, and clears, there are also
"boo-hoos," "overts," going "squirrel," and even Orgs (short for
organizations).  The Sea Org, a fleet of naval vessels, is the most
prominent of all, composed of the elite of Scientology.  Sea Org
members command widespread respect throughout the movement.

                          EFFECT ON MEMBERS

.    Scientologists object to their movement being called a cult, but
critics who say it is point first of all to the extremely high fees
for auditing and other Scientology courses.  Mrs. Mary Weeks, a
Scientology critic in Portland, Oregon, reports that the Portland
chapter charges $150 an hour for auditing.  Some claim that the
average amount spent to try to become "clear" is $2,500; Mrs. Weeks
places the figure at $5,000.  Several have spent $10,000 to $15,000.
One ex-Scientologist said he spent $23,000 in nine months and had not
even completed the second course.  A few have spent over $100,000 on
Scientology.  The cult is almost exclusively run on the fees, and 10%
of all church income goes to the headquarters in England.

.    Ex-members claim it is very hard to get refunds if one is not
satisfied with the results.  Some contend that when they attempted to
stop their auditing they were strongly discouraged.  They were told
that they were unhappy with the results because they hadn't taken
enough sessions, and they were pressured into signing up for more.  In
any case, it is necessary to go through eleven or twelve church
officials to get the refund.

.    As the costs for sessions are prohibitively high, some pledge to
work for the church in return for continual training.  Many members
work very long hours for little or no payment.  One ex-Scientologist
said he worked a 100-hour week for only $10 a week.  Another former
Scientologist, Julie Titchbourne, who joined the cult when she was 17,
worked sixteen hours a day for $4 per week.  When she left the cult,
she then filed a huge lawsuit against it.  This will be dealt with in
the "History" section.

.    Auditing sessions also make use of a curious device called the
electronometer, or E-Meter for short.  The device is a crude form of
lie detector, composed of two electrodes connected to a box with a
needle on it.  The subject holds the electrodes while the auditor puts
him through various tests, sometimes lasting several hours.  Some say
that prolonged auditing can cause subjects to experience
hallucinations that grow more realistic over time until they can no
longer tell what they imagine apart from what they experience.

.    Many also claim that they were alienated from family and friends
as they got more and more heavily into Scientology.  Many were
convinced that they were responsible for the "engrams" in their minds.

.    Critics also charge that some ex-Scientologists have gone insane
from auditing and some have even committed suicide because of it.  Dr.
Margaret Singer, testifying at the Julie Titchbourne trial (see
below), said that Julie suffered from "a stress response syndrome that
has impaired her recall, use of language, and concentration."

.    The status of a Scientologist is closely monitored by an Ethics
Officer, who watches the progress of the individual and adjusts his
"Ethics Condition" according to his progress.  These conditions are,
from lowest to highest: Confusion, Treason, Enemy, Doubt, Liability,
Nonexistence, Danger, Emergency, Normal, Affluence, and Power.  A
person who has been demoted by an Ethics Officer may reinstate himself
by doing various "amends projects" such as writing 100 times that you
were wrong, scrubbing floors, composing papers about your
shortcomings, or collecting signatures from fellow members.

                               HISTORY

.    Scientology has always had a rather stormy history, having to
deal with critics, ex-members turned enemies, deprogrammers, and the
United States Government.

.    The cult's troubles really got started around 1963, when the Food
and Drug Administration made a raid on Scientology headquarters,
confiscating three tons of literature and E-Meters.  They then tried
to declare E-Meters ineffective.

.    In that same year, a British Scientologist named Robert Moore and
his wife, Mary Ann, broke off from the cult along with several others.
The Moores then adopted the last name of DeGrimston and founded the
infamous Process Church of the Final Judgment, a cult that worships
three gods: Jehovah, Lucifer, and Satan.  In recent years, this cult
has been accused of playing a major part in the infamous "Son of Sam"
killings; and the murderer, David Berkowitz, is a member of the cult.

.    The Process, as they are often called, was also in contact with
ex-Scientologist Charles Manson for a while.  They set up their
California headquarters in the Haight-Ashbury district of San
Francisco on Cole Avenue, and at one time, Manson and his followers
lived no more than two blocks away from the Process.  There is some
evidence to support the belief that the Process may have either
directly or indirectly influenced the Manson cult to commit the bloody
Tate/LaBianca slayings of 1969.

.    As for Charles Manson, he joined Scientology in the early 60's,
eventually claiming to reach the stage of "clear" while in prison for
earlier crimes.  After that, he felt that Scientology had nothing more
to offer him, so he left the cult.  His last contact with Scientology
was in 1968, when he asked a church receptionist in Los Angeles what
one did after becoming clear.  When she was unable to tell him
anything new, he left.  Vincent Bugliosi, Manson's prosecutor in the
slayings, said in his book "Helter Skelter," "What effect, if any,
Scientology had on Manson's mental state cannot be measured.
Undoubtedly he picked up from his 'auditing' sessions in prison some
knowledge of mind control, as well as some techniques which he later
put to use in programming his followers."

.    Scientology then assumed a policy of threatening and attacking
those who fought against the cult.  Julie Titchbourne, a former
Scientologist from Seattle, sued the cult in the late 70's, and one of
the prosecutors affirmed that the cult had arranged to set her up on a
fake kidnaping charge.  In fact, one of the alternate jurors for the
Titchbourne case, Marie Killman, told the judge that she was
telephoned by a man who told her, "If your findings are against the
Scientology Church you will be killed."  Later, he phoned her again
with the message "I will get you, I will get you."  Killman was
removed from the trial.

.    One of Scientology's chief bugbears is a free-lance journalist
named Paulette Cooper.  In 1971, she wrote a scathing expose of the
cult called "The Scandal Of Scientology," in which she referred to
their methods as "resembling a combination of psychotherapy and the
Catholic confession."  The cult filed 18 libel suits against her, each
one coming from a different branch of the cult.  Cooper was able to
make a settlement with Scientology by pledging not to republish the
book and by releasing a statement that said fifty-two passages in the
book were "erroneous or at least misleading."

.    Shortly afterwards, an Arabian consulate in New York City
received bomb threats over the phone from someone who sounded like
Paulette Cooper.  Then, more bomb threats were sent to several people;
all threats written on Ms. Cooper's stationery.  Her fingerprints were
even found on the bomb threats.  Cooper's neighbors received letters
threatening her friends and stating that she had venereal disease.
Finally, in May, 1973, Cooper was indicted by a Federal grand jury in
connection with the bomb threats, and may very well have been
convicted of them had she not taken voluntary sodium pentathol tests
in 1975 to prove her innocence.

.    In 1976, two people obtained jobs in the Internal Revenue Service
and the Justice Department.  Both were Scientologists who used
falsified credentials to secure the jobs.  They then proceeded to
steal 15,000 documents from the organizations related to tax-exemption
inquiries concerning Scientology.  In that same year, Scientology
purchased the Fort Harrison Hotel in Florida and converted it into a
training center for high-level Scientologists called Flag
Headquarters.  Five other buildings in Clearwater were also purchased.
In 1977, Scientology also bought six buildings in Los Angeles,
including the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital complex, which sold for
$5,500,000 and was converted into seminar headquarters.

.    Then it happened.  On July 8, 1977, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation launched a massive raid on the Church of Scientology
headquarters at Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.  The raid took over
20 hours and involved 165 FBI agents.  A total of 100,000 pages were
seized, turning up the most damaging testimony against the cult to
date.  Among the documents were files dedicated to critics and
opponents of Scientology kept by the Guardian's Office, a special
branch of the cult trained to deal with Scientology's critics.  One of
them, found at both locations, was a huge file dedicated to Paulette
Cooper called "Operation P.C. Freak-Out."  The purpose of this
campaign was to "get P.C. [Paulette Cooper] incarcerated in a mental
institution or jail or at least hit her so hard that she drops her
attacks."

.    Also unearthed by the raid were papers implicating the church in
a fake hit-and-run auto accident involving Gariel Cezares, then mayor
of Clearwater, Florida, after objecting to the cult's extensive
purchases in the city, burglary of a law firm representing the ST.
PETERSBURG TIMES, attempts to discredit the editor of ST. PETERSBURG
TIMES, infiltration of the CLEARWATER SUN office to report on the
paper's daily activities, and infiltration of the WASHINGTON POST
newspaper office, among other crimes.  The seized documents outlined
plans to infiltrate more than 130 Federal agencies, private
organizations, and businesses.

.    In response, the Church of Scientology launched a $7,500,000
lawsuit against the FBI and two United States attorneys implicated in
the raids.  The D.C. raid was declared illegal, and the Federal judge
ordered all papers taken from the D.C. headquarters to be given back.
This still left them with a ten-inch stack of 48,000 documents to be
used against the cult, as the Los Angeles raid was declared legal in
September, 1979.

.    In August, 1978, 11 high-ranking Scientology officials, including
Cindy Raymond, Gerald Bennett Wolfe, and Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of L.
Ron Hubbard and "Worldwide Guardian" of the Church, were indicted on
28 counts by the United States Government, including conspiracy.

.    1979 proved to be a most disastrous year for Scientology.  In
June, the Church was accused of obtaining fraudulent loans from
California banks as high as $10,000, then sticking the funds in the
cult's treasury.  100 people in the Church have been questioned about
the loans, and two have already admitted to obtaining them.  In
August, an Oregon jury awarded Julie Titchbourne $2,067,000 on the
grounds of "outrageous conduct" and "common law fraud" by the Church
of Scientology.  And on October 26, 1979, eight Scientology officials
were convicted of conspiracy.  Mary Sue Hubbard, Cindy Raymond, and
Gerald Bennett Wolfe were each sentenced to five years in jail and a
$10,000 fine, with the others receiving lesser sentences.  The ten-
inch stack of Scientology documents was also made available to the
general public.  In January, 1980, the Scientology officials were
released on bail pending an appeal.

.    As for L. Ron Hubbard himself, no one has admitted to seeing him
after 1978.  He lived in isolation either in an elegant penthouse at
the top of the Clearwater headquarters or, as many believe, on his
300-foot yacht, the APOLLO.  He was said to be deathly afraid of
germs; a reclusive hypochondriac, taking drugs for all sorts of
illnesses both real and imagined.  Finally, L. Ron Hubbard died in
1986.  His "Self-Analysis" book and "Mission Earth" series were
published posthumously.

                               OVERVIEW

.    If any Christian considers getting into Dianetics, he should also
consider the amount of money he will have to spend in auditing
sessions and other exercises.  He should also look at its beliefs in
reincarnation and the notion that humans were once godlike beings from
the stars.  Although the movement claims to be compatible with all
other religions, it makes no claim to help you understand God; it only
offers to help you understand yourself.  In fact, to the
Scientologist, whether or not there even is a God is irrelevant, since
he will someday be like God.  The Christian must also consider the
cult's policies of dealing with ex-members and enemies.

.    Scientology, which has been referred to by critics as "the
science fiction religion," has been surrounded with controversy for
years.  It claims to be enhancing mental health, but Dr. John G. Clark
testified at the Titchbourne trial that Scientology is a dangerous
cult that is "designed to tear apart the fabric of the mind."  Its
exercises are "utterly mutilating to the mind.  Taken to its extreme,
you can teach someone to kill."

.    In closing, these are the words of a young writer for TIME
magazine describing his experience with the cult in 1969: "Scientology
is scary - because of its size and growth, and because of the
potentially disastrous techniques it so casually makes use of...I have
Hubbard to thank for a true-life nightmare that gnawed at my family
relationships and saddled me with a burden of guilt I've not yet been
able to shed."