The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his075/scie4.lzh/SCIE4.TXT

Text File | 1991-09-14 | 22KB | 382 lines

CUL: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 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 recieved 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 corpeal 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 reeducate 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
pro-cessing, 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 Scien-tology
critic in Portland, Oregon, reports that the Portland chapter charges
$150 an hour for auditing. Some claim that the avergae 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 prohibitvely 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,
Nonexistance, 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,
con-fiscating 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 Judgement, 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. However, the Process will be dealt with in depth in another
textfile.

   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 pro-
gramming his followers."

   Scientology then assumed a policy of threatening and attacking those
who fought against the cult. Julie Titchbourne, a former Scien-tologist
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
kidnapping charge. In fact, one of the alternate jurors for the
Titch-bourne 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
threat-ening 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 h 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 dcuments 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
trianing 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
Investi-gation 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, turing 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 pur-chases
in the city, burglary of a law firm representing the ST. PETERS-BURG
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
law-suit 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 fradulent loans from Cali-fornia
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
reincar-nation 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 maga-zine
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."