HUBBARD IN HIS OWN WORDS
"Scientology is used to increase spiritual freedom, intelligence, ability and to produce immortality."
- L. Ron Hubbard, DIANETICS AND SCIENTOLOGY TECHNICAL DICTIONARY, copyright 1975, reprinted 1987, p. 370
"MAKE MONEY. MAKE MORE MONEY. MAKE OTHER PEOPLE PRODUCE SO AS TO MAKE MORE MONEY."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 9 March 1972, MS OEC 384
"Show me any person who is critical of us and I�ll show you crimes and intended crimes that would stand a magistrate�s hair on end."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 4 April 1965
"Somebody some day will say �this is illegal.� By then be sure the orgs [Scientology organizations] say what is legal or not."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 4 January 1966, "LRH Relationship to Orgs"
"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."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 15 August 1960, Dept. of Govt. Affairs
"The purpose of the suit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. The law can be used very easily to harass, and enough harassment on somebody who is simply on the thin edge anyway, well knowing that he is not authorized, will generally be sufficient to cause his professional decease. If possible, of course, ruin him utterly."
- L. Ron Hubbard, A MANUAL ON THE DISSEMINATION OF MATERIAL, 1955
"When we need somebody haunted we investigate�When we investigate we do so noisily always."
- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959
"People attack Scientology, I never forget it, always even the score. People attack auditors, or staff, or organisations, or me. I never forget until the slate is clear."
- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959
"So we listen. We add up associations of people with people. When a push against Scientology starts somewhere, we go over the people involved and weed them out. Push vanishes."
- L. Ron Hubbard, MANUAL OF JUSTICE, 1959
"Our organizations are friendly. They are only here to help you."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Dianetic Contract" 23 May 1969
"ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. 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."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967
[SP = Suppressive Person a.k.a. critic of Scientology]
"The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease. FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations.
This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 21 October 1968, "Cancellation of Fair Game"
"A truly Suppressive Person or group has no rights of any kind and actions taken against them are not punishable."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 1 March 1965, HCO (Division 1) "Ethics, Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists"
"The names and connections, at this time, of the bitterly opposing enemy are: 1. Psychiatry and psychology (not medicine). 2. The heads of news media who are also directors of psychiatric front groups. 3. A few key political figures in the fields of "mental health" and education. 4. A decline of monetary stability caused by the current planning of bankers who are also directors of psychiatric front organizations [that] would make us unable to function."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 16 February 1969, "TARGETS, DEFENSE"
"When you move off a point of power, pay all your obligations on the nail, empower all your friends completely and move off with your pockets full of artillery, potential blackmail on every erstwhile rival, unlimited funds in your private account and the addresses of experienced assassins and go live in Bulgravia [sic] and bribe the police."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 12 February 1967, "The Responsibilities of Leaders"
"There is no more ethical group on this planet than ourselves."
- L. Ron Hubbard, KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING. 7 February 1965, reissued 27 August 1980
"They smell of all the baths they didn�t take. The trouble with China is, there are too many chinks here."
- L. Ron Hubbard�s diary, 1928. (Jon Atack, A PIECE OF BLUE SKY: SCIENTOLOGY, DIANETICS AND L. RON HUBBARD EXPOSED. Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group 1990)
"Having viewed slum clearance projects in most major cities of the world may I state that you have conceived and created in the Johannesburg townships what is probably the most impressive and adequate resettlement activity in existence."
- L. Ron Hubbard in a letter to H.F. Verwoerd (widely considered to be the architect of South Africa�s apartheid system) dated November 7, 1960, reprinted in K.T.C. Kotz�, INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECTS AND PRACTICES OF SCIENTOLOGY, p. 59, Pretoria 1973
"In any event, any person from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale should not have, in any thinking society, any civil rights of any kind, because by abusing those rights he brings into being arduous and strenuous laws which are oppressive to those who need no such restraints."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, 1989 Ed., p. 145 [The "Tone Scale" is Scientology�s measure of mental and spiritual health.]
"There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the Tone Scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 170
"The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the Tone Scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 170
"A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 171
"Unfortunately, it is all too often true that suppressors to a creative action must be removed before construction and creation takes place. Any person very high on the Tone Scale may level destruction toward a suppressor."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL, p. 159
"In all the broad Universe there is no other hope for Man than ourselves."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Ron's Journal" 1967
"A psychiatrist today has the power to (1) take a fancy to a woman (2) lead her to take wild treatment as a joke (3) drug and shock her to temporary insanity (4) incarnate [sic] her (5) use her sexually (6) sterilise her to prevent conception (7) kill her by a brain operation to prevent disclosure. And all with no fear of reprisal. Yet it is rape and murder� We want at least one bad mark on every psychiatrist in England, a murder, an assault, or a rape or more than one� This is Project Psychiatry. We will remove them."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Sec ED, Office of LRH, Confidential, 22 February 1966, "Project Psychiatry"
"I�m drinking lots of rum and popping pinks and greys."
- L. Ron Hubbard in a 1967 letter to his wife, written during the period when he was creating Scientology�s secret "upper levels." (Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. a.k.a. Ronald DeWolf, L. RON HUBBARD: MESSIAH OR MADMAN? Random House 1989)
"Now, get this as a technical fact, not 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."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, 5 November 1967, "Critics of Scientology"
"This is the correct procedure: Spot who is attacking us. Start investigating them promptly for felonies or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies. Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them. Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Don�t ever tamely submit to an investigation of us. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 25 February 1966
"We're playing for blood, the stake is EARTH."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 7 November 1962
"THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Off the Time Track," lecture of June 1952, excerpted in JOURNAL OF SCIENTOLOGY issue 18-G, reprinted in TECHNICAL VOLUMES OF DIANETICS & SCIENTOLOGY, vol. 1, p. 418
"Scientology...is not a religion."
- L. Ron Hubbard, CREATION OF HUMAN ABILITY, 1954, p. 251
"This [Scientology] is useful knowledge. With it the blind again see, the lame walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner. By its use the thousand abilities Man has sought to recover become his once more."
- L. Ron Hubbard, SCIENTOLOGY: A HISTORY OF MAN, 1952
"Benzedrine often helps a case run."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "The Intensive Processing Procedure," 1950
["Run a case" = administer Dianetics or Scientology procedures to someone]
"Of all the ills of man which can be successfully processed by Scientology, arthritis ranks near the top. In skilled hands, this ailment, though misunderstood and dreaded in the past, already has begun to become history. Twenty-five hours of Scientology by an auditor who fairly understands how to process arthritis can be said to produce an invariable alleviation of the condition. Some cases, even severe ones, have responded in as little as two hours of processing, according to reports from auditors in the field."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Journal of Scientology," Issue 1-G, 1952
"Leukaemia is evidently psychosomatic in origin and at least eight cases of leukaemia had been treated successfully by Dianetics after medicine had traditionally given up. The source of leukaemia has been reported to be an engram containing the phrase �It turns my blood to water.�"
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Journal of Scientology," Issue 15-G, 1953
"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.�"
- L. Ron Hubbard, KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING, 7 February 1965, reissued 27 August 1980
"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."
- L. Ron Hubbard speaking of his Operating Thetan Courses, Flag Mission Order 375
"�Psychiatry� and �psychiatrist� are easily redefined to mean �an anti-social enemy of the people�. This takes the kill crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions...The redefinition of words is done by associating different emotions and symbols with the word than were intended...Scientologists are redefining �doctor�, �Psychiatry� and �psychology� to mean �undesirable antisocial elements�...The way to redefine a word is to get the new definition repeated as often as possible. Thus it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards. This, so far as words are concerned, is the public opinion battle for belief in your definitions, and not those of the opposition. A consistent, repeated effort is the key to any success with this technique of propaganda."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 5 October 1971, PR Series 12, "Propaganda by Redefinition of Words"
"Arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalogue of illnesses goes away and stays away."
L. Ron Hubbard, DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH, 1987 Ed., p. 72
"Scientology is the only specific (cure) for radiation (atomic bomb) burns."
- L. Ron Hubbard, ALL ABOUT RADIATION, p. 109"You are only three or four hours from taking your glasses off for keeps."
- L. Ron Hubbard, "Eyesight and glasses," "Dianetic Auditor�s Bulletin," Vol. 2, No. 7, January 1952
"The alleviation of the condition of insanity has also been accomplished now�"
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, November 1970, "Psychosis"
"Let�s sell these people a piece of blue sky."
- L. Ron Hubbard to an associate in 1950, soon after the opening of the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation. (Jon Atack, A PIECE OF BLUE SKY: SCIENTOLOGY, DIANETICS AND L. RON HUBBARD EXPOSED, Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group. 1990)
"I�d like to start a religion. That�s where the money is."
- L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd Eshbach, in 1949; quoted by Eshbach in OVER MY SHOULDER: REFLECTIONS ON A SCIENCE FICTION ERA, Donald M. Grant Publisher. 1983
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES:
The official Church of Scientology website:
www.scientology.org
Websites for the Freezone, practicing Scientology outside the CoS:
www.fzaoint.net
www.fza.org
www.freezone.org
Alternate views:
www.xenu.net
www.factnet.org
www.scientologywatch.org
www.suppressiveperson.org/
www.spaink.net
www.snafu.de/~tilman/
www.narconon-exposed.org
www.studytech.org
www.modemac.com
www.truthaboutscientology.com
www.scientology-lies.com
www.lermanet.com
www.freedomofmind.com
www.altreligionscientology.org
www.xenutv.com
All quotations of copyrighted material herein fall within Fair Use guidelines.
Note: The Scientology organization is commonly referred to as the Church of Scientology. The reader should be aware that, in reality, global Scientology is a complex international legal structure of multiple corporations, some of which are nonprofit and some of which are not.
The terms "Scientology" and "Dianetics" are trademarks and service marks owned by Religious Technology Center (RTC), Los Angeles, California, USA. For a detailed explanation of Scientology's copyrights, trademarks, and other legal issues involving the names and symbols used by the organizations collectively known as "Scientology" and "Dianetics," see the Trademark Section of the Official Scientology Web Site.
Showing posts with label Cult. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cult. Show all posts
Thursday, July 10, 2008
$cientology's True History
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY
"I�d like to start a religion. That�s where the money is."
- L. Ron Hubbard to Lloyd Eshbach in 1949, quoted by Eshbach in OVER MY SHOULDER: REFLECTIONS ON A SCIENCE FICTION ERA. Donald M. Grant Publisher, 1983
____________________
L. Ron Hubbard established the Church of Scientology (CoS) in 1954 against the following backdrop: He had dropped out of college with failing grades. Although he would later claim a distinguished wartime naval career, Hubbard in fact never saw combat and left the US Navy petitioning the Veterans Administration for psychiatric care. Two bigamous marriages failed. He found success writing pulp/science fiction, but as he declared in the late 1940s: "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion." (1)
Hubbard took up ritual magic, the occult and hypnosis, giving demonstrations of hypnosis in 1948 and writing to his literary agent about a therapy system he was working on that had tremendous promotional and sales potential. (2) Piecing together hypnotic techniques, Freudian theories, Buddhist concepts and elements of other philosophies and practices, Hubbard came up with Dianetics. He published DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH in 1950.
In Dianetic practice the "patient," working with a partner called an "auditor" recalls past painful experiences in reverse chronological sequence, supposedly erasing their negative effects and attaining a state called "clear," allegedly free from all ills. (3) The auditor carefully records any intimate revelations, including sexual or criminal activities and marital or family troubles; these records are kept on file.
Hubbard represented Dianetics as a mental health therapy. He asserted that it was scientifically based and developed through careful research, and his use of the word "patient" suggests that he anticipated acceptance of Dianetics by the medical profession. But he never produced copies of any research protocol. Dianetics was opposed immediately by the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association, the latter recommending that its members limit use of Dianetic techniques to investigation only, until Hubbard�s claimed results could be corroborated. (4)
The public, however, made the book a bestseller, and it seemed that Hubbard�s ship had come in.
He created the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation to promulgate his theories and techniques.
With auditors repeatedly asking patients in trance state to recall "earlier similar incidents," patients began to report past lifetime experiences. Hubbard incorporated belief in past lives into his evolving ideology, discussing the concept in his second Dianetics book, SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL.
The Hubbard Foundation began to collapse as the initial Dianetics craze wore off, and Hubbard�s new-found emphasis on past lives exacerbated tensions with the Foundation�s financial partners. By 1952 Hubbard was penniless and had lost control of Dianetics.
Scientology is Born
Hubbard became interested in a type of lie detector called the "electropsychometer" that he believed would yield better results in auditing. He obtained a franchise for this device, which he renamed the Hubbard Electrometer, or E-meter. He began calling patients "pre-clears" and "within six weeks had created a new subject apparently out of thin air." (5)
Hubbard called his new subject Scientology and in introducing it, he claimed to have discovered the human soul. Whereas Dianetics had addressed the body, Scientology involved freeing souls (which Hubbard called "thetans") from supposed entrapment in the physical or material world and restoring their alleged supernatural powers.
Hubbard established a headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, awarded himself the degree of D.Scn. (Doctor of Scientology) and in May 1952 incorporated the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International under the personal control of himself and his third wife, Mary Sue. The AMA meanwhile continued its opposition to Dianetics and Scientology.
In 1953 Hubbard regained control of Dianetics after a protracted legal battle and incorporated the Church of Scientology, Church of American Science and Church of Spiritual Engineering. In 1954 he incorporated the Church of Scientology of California, which became the mother church. In 1956 the church was granted US federal tax-exempt status.
In 1957, passing himself off as a nuclear physicist, Hubbard gave a series of lectures in London on "nuclear radiation and health," promoting a vitamin compound which he claimed cured both "radiation sickness" and cancer. Also that year the CIA began a file on him.
Hubbard repeatedly wrote to the FBI with complaints of Communist and Nazi persecution. The Bureau considered him a mental case, but kept a file on him and would later, as his organization grew, investigate him actively...abusively, Scientologists maintain. (6) (7)
International Expansion
In 1959 Hubbard moved to England and bought Saint Hill Mansion in Sussex, from which he would direct international operations and expansion of the CoS until 1967. The 1960s saw the introduction of "Ethics" procedures, which include harsh punishments (even for children) and the "disconnection" policy, which requires Scientologists to sever ties with family and friends critical of Scientology.
Although the essentials of Scientology had been thoroughly presented early on, Hubbard turned out a steady stream of books and audio tapes that are aggressively marketed to his followers. He created systems of "Security Checks" in which members are interrogated to ensure loyalty and extract confessions. He produced reams of policy directives on subjects varying from Scientology "tech" (technology) to church management to approved cleaning solvents to his own recipe for baby formula; all these missives are considered by CoS members to be sacred scripture.
In the late 1960s Hubbard released the "upper levels." Scientologists who had spent hundreds or thousands of hours vainly pursuing often-promised supernatural abilities were guaranteed that these procedures would finally deliver on the promise. Based on a science-fiction-like story taking place millions of years ago and involving a cruel Galactic despot named Xenu and his evil minions (elsewhere identified as present-day Christian clergy and psychiatrists), the upper levels are kept secret until a member is deemed ready to receive them. The estimated cost from beginning Scientology courses through completion of the upper levels is today $300,000 - $500,000 in US dollars.
In 1967 the IRS stripped Scientology�s mother church of its tax-exempt status. With his organization coming under increasing scrutiny from a variety of governments and tax woes abounding, Hubbard wrote his famous "Fair Game" law, which states that anyone named an enemy of Scientology "may be tricked, sued, lied to or destroyed." (8) A year later, he would issue a directive canceling use of the term, "Fair Game," (due to negative publicity) but making plain that attacks on Scientology�s perceived enemies were to continue. (9)
In mid-1967 Hubbard bought three ships and put to sea with a small cadre of followers. Styling himself "the Commodore," he spent the next several years wandering the Atlantic, pursued by imaginary Reds and Nazis and attended by "Commodore�s Messengers," teenaged girls dressed in white hot pants who waited on him hand and foot, bathing and dressing him and even catching the ash from his cigarettes. He had frequent screaming tantrums and instituted brutal punishments such as incarceration in the ship�s filthy chain-locker for days or weeks at a time and "overboarding," in which errant crew members were blindfolded, bound and thrown overboard, dropping up to 40 ft. into the cold sea and hoping not to hit the side of the ship with its razor-sharp barnacles on the way down. These punishments applied to children as well as to adults.
Hubbard made bungling attempts to take over Morocco and Rhodesia and was banned from further entry into Britain. He began the Sea Organization (SO), whose members wear pseudo-naval uniforms, adopt naval ranks, sign billion year contracts and are pressured to have abortions when they become pregnant because children are perceived as interfering with their SO obligations. Hubbard created the infamously abusive Rehabilitation Project Force as a special punishment for SO members who fail to follow orders, make mistakes or fall short of production goals.
Going Religious
During the early 1970s the IRS "proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency�s employees." (10)
A US federal court in 1971 ruled that Hubbard�s medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could not be called a scientific treatment. The CoS responded by "going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection...counselors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, franchises became �missions,� fees became �fixed donations,� and Hubbard�s comic-book cosmology became �sacred scriptures.�" (11)
After years of running the Scientology organization from aboard his flagship, the Apollo, in 1975 Hubbard bought the Fort Harrison Hotel and a former bank building in downtown Clearwater, Florida under the name United Churches of Florida, to hide Scientology�s connection. He moved his crew to Clearwater, establishing the Flagship Land Base, a.k.a. "Flag."
While the Church of Scientology continued to expand, its private intelligence agency known as the Guardian�s Office (GO) ran cloak-and-dagger operations against the mayor of Clearwater, various governmental agencies and anyone else perceived as in their way.
Hubbard had established the GO in 1966 for internal and external security purposes. The GO�s purview included attacking critics, keeping members in line and silencing defectors. GO agents "stole medical files, sent out anonymous smear letters, framed critics for criminal acts, blackmailed, bugged and burgled opponents, and infiltrated government offices stealing thousands of files...Critics were to be driven to breakdown or harassed into silence." (12) Eventually, in the early 1980s, eleven GO officials, including Hubbard�s wife, were imprisoned following a massive bugging and burgling operation against government offices across the US that Hubbard had personally created and code-named "Operation Snow White." Hubbard, himself was named as an unindicted co-conspirator but escaped justice because no one could find him.
Almost from the beginning, Hubbard had been in trouble with the law. In 1951 the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners brought proceedings against him for teaching medicine without a license; he fled to Los Angeles to escape prosecution. His organizations were repeatedly charged with practicing medicine without a license; E-meters and vitamin compounds were seized. The FDA accused Scientology of falsely claiming the E-meter could cure medical ailments and all E-meters were required to carry labels disavowing such claims.
At various times, Hubbard (and/or the church) was investigated by the US Justice Department, the FBI, FDA, CIA, IRS, NSA, Bureau of Customs, DEA, DOD, the Secret Service, the US Post Office, INS, BATF, Department of Labor, police departments of various US cities as well as Interpol and a host of other governmental agencies worldwide. Hubbard was convicted in absentia of fraud in France. The Church of Scientology was convicted of breach of the public trust and infiltration of government offices in Canada. Scientology was banned by the state of Victoria, Australia. Hubbard attributed all these events to widespread plotting by Russian communists, neofascists, bankers, the media, the IRS, Christian clergy, fiendish extraterrestrials and the psychiatric profession, which he considered his arch enemy.
Scientology Post-Hubbard
Hubbard went into seclusion following the "Operation Snow White" debacle and in the early 1980s David Miscavige, a second-generation Scientologist, took the reins of Scientology at age 21. At that time "...high-level defectors [were] accusing Hubbard of having stolen as much as $200 million from the church [and] the IRS was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scientology members �worked day and night� shredding documents the IRS sought," (13) according to a defector. Hubbard died in 1986 before the criminal case could be prosecuted.
During the power struggles and purges of the 1980s, many people left the church. Some established independent organizations based on Hubbard�s writings. The CoS quickly undertook mass copyrighting of all Hubbard materials and took legal steps to shut down the independents. In 1983 the Office of Special Affairs was created to carry on the purposes of the defunct Guardian�s Office. (14)
In 1991 the internet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology (A.R.S.) appeared. Scientology immediately pounced, but the church�s heavy-handed attempts to shut down A.R.S. failed. The conflict attracted the attention of free speech advocates worldwide and sparked a proliferation of anti-Scientology newsgroups and websites.
Hubbard advocated harassment of opponents by lawsuit, and so following the CoS�s loss of tax-exempt status in 1967, Scientology declared war. For 26 years "...they attacked the IRS consistently on many fronts; suing and investigating individual IRS agents, deliberately obscuring their records, constantly suing the IRS directly, taking out anti-IRS advertisements, funding anti-IRS groups, lying, infiltrating, stealing, bugging, offering rewards for IRS whistleblowers, pressuring congressmen to investigate the IRS, filing countless Freedom of Information Act requests, creating a corporate maze, publishing anti-IRS articles in their own magazines, and other methods. The attacks worked." (15)
In 1993 the beleaguered IRS and the Church of Scientology International reached an agreement, the terms of which were kept secret but were leaked to THE WALL STREET JOURNAL four years later. Per the agreement, the church gained tax-exempt status for itself and its subsidiaries and in return agreed to drop the lawsuits and settle its back tax obligations with a payment of $12.5 million -- a fraction of the estimated amount owed. Many questions have been raised about provisions of this agreement, however the IRS and CoS maintain that it is confidential and will not discuss it. (16)
Scientologists have sought to undermine anti-cult groups by infiltrating them or shutting them down outright. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), which was for 20 years the US�s best known resource for information and advice on religious cults. CAN�s legal fees forced it into bankruptcy; the rights to CAN�s name, logo and hotline number were bought by a Scientologist in bankruptcy court and the new CAN is staffed by Scientologists.
The CoS relies heavily on celebrity spokespeople and front groups for favorable publicity and recruiting. A number of organizations working in the areas of literacy, drug counseling, human rights, and business and management techniques, while not legally connected to the Church of Scientology, promote Hubbard�s philosophy and draw people into the church. The CoS capitalized on the Sept. 11, 2001 World Trade Center tragedy, with its corps of "Volunteer Ministers" setting up a flurry of centers to help/recruit traumatized emergency workers and grieving families, while simultaneously interfering with mental health professionals wherever possible. (17) And US troops returning from service in Iraq have apparently been targeted for recruitment into the church. (18).
Governments in France, Germany, Australia, Israel, Spain, Canada, Greece, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, England and elsewhere have taken actions to protect their citizens from exploitation by religious cults, with Scientology frequently a focus of concern.
In recent years, hundreds of longtime Scientologists have quit the church (many charging emotional and physical abuse) and are criticizing it, despite the CoS�s well known reputation for ruthlessly harassing critics. (19) (20) Some have continued practicing Scientology outside the CoS. Others have sued the church and won; most notable perhaps is Lawrence Wollersheim, who was paid over $8 million by the church in 2003 after winning a case in which he claimed that Scientology practices had nearly driven him to suicide.
In 2003 Fox News and other media outlets reported that the Church of Scientology has begun requiring its members to sign a release form agreeing to be held against their will for indefinite periods, isolated from friends and family and denied access to medical care (particularly psychiatric care) and absolving the church of responsibility for any resultant harm. (21) The document was apparently drawn up in response to a wrongful-death suit brought against the church in 1997 by the family of Lisa McPherson, a 36-year-old Scientologist who died in 1995 after being held in isolation for 17 days while undergoing Scientology "processes" at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. At the time of her death, she was comatose, severely dehydrated and covered in cockroach bites. Following a seven-year legal battle, an out-of-court agreement settling the suit was reached in May 2004; the terms of this agreement were sealed. (22)
Today, directly across the street from the Fort Harrison Hotel, where Lisa McPherson suffered and died, Scientology�s new 380,000-square-foot headquarters is under construction. It is called the "Super Power" building, after the "Super Power Rundown" ("rundown" in Scientology parlance = a series of steps designed to produce a certain result) which, according to Hubbard, "consists of 12 separate high power rundowns which are brand new and enter realms of the tech never before approached... [giving a Scientologist] the super powers of infinity." (23)
NOTES:
1. Eugene M. Methvin, "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult," READER�S DIGEST, May 1980. http://tinyurl.com/2dkw2
2. Jon Atack. "The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard," Chapter 9. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/245dd
3. L. Ron Hubbard. DIANETICS: THE MODERN SCIENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH. (Los Angeles, Bridge Publications, original copyright 1950, edition 1992., pp. 13-14).
4. Lucy Freeman. "Psychologists act against Dianetics," THE NEW YORK TIMES, September 9, 1950.
5. Op. cit., Jon Atack, chapter 10. http://tinyurl.com/245dd
6. CHRONOLOGY OF THE SCIENTOLOGY MOVEMENT, compiled by the Free Zone Association, individuals practicing Scientology outside the CoS. http://tinyurl.com/2ws9u
7. Collection of FBI files relating to L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. http://tinyurl.com/28ur2
8. L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 18 October 1967.
"ENEMY SP Order. Fair game. 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." [SP = Suppressive Person a.k.a. critic of Scientology]
9. L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 21 October 1968, "Cancellation of Fair Game"
"The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease. FAIR GAME may not appear on any Ethics Order. It causes bad public relations. This P/L does not cancel any policy on the treatment or handling of an SP."
10. Richard Behar. "Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," TIME MAGAZINE, May 6, 1991. http://tinyurl.com/28nox
11. Ibid.
12. Op. cit., Atack, chapter 16.
13. Op. cit., Behar.
14. Chris Owen. "Scientology�s Secret Service: An expos� of the shady activities of Scientology�s intelligence agencies." Online article: http://tinyurl.com/37nw4
15. Jeff Jacobsen. "Scientology�s Tax Exemption Should be Rescinded." July 19, 2001. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/26ow5
16. Ibid.
17. Chris Owen. "Scientology at Ground Zero." May 2003. Online article: http://tinyurl.com/23kt3
18. Press Release, April 26, 2004, from L. Ron Hubbard Public Relations West U.S., "Collateral Damage in Iraq Includes Military Suicide" http://tinyurl.com/2n8gk
19. Guardian Order, GO 121669 MSH, 16 December 1969, "Programme: Intelligence: Internal Security"
[MSH = L. Ron Hubbard�s wife, Mary Sue, head of the Guardian�s Office] http://tinyurl.com/2mkst
20. Sworn affidavit of former CoS executive Jesse Prince. http://tinyurl.com/2uuof
21. The Church of Scientology�s release of liability agreement. http://tinyurl.com/35lws
22. Robert Farley. "Scientologists settle death suit," ST. PETERSBURG (Florida) TIMES, May 29, 2004. http://tinyurl.com/yqxj5
23. L. Ron Hubbard, Ron�s Journal 30, 17 December 1978. Super Power Rundown Series, Confidential, Executive Directive.
REFERENCES:
Jon Atack. A PIECE OF BLUE SKY: SCIENTOLOGY, DIANETICS AND L. RON HUBBARD EXPOSED (New York: Lyle Stuart/Carol Publishing Group, 1990). http://tinyurl.com/25rov
Jon Atack. "Possible Origins for Dianetics and Scientology." Online article, extensively referenced.
Stacy Brooks. "My Perspective on Auditing." Online article. http://tinyurl.com/ypzkl
Paulette Cooper. THE SCANDAL OF SCIENTOLOGY. 1970. Web edition November 1997. Cooper�s groundbreaking book on Scientology precipitated a 15-year ordeal of harassment by the Church of Scientology that included nineteen lawsuits, theft, malicious prosection and framing her for bomb threats. http://tinyurl.com/ypk3k
"Cult Awareness Network now in the hands of Scientology." Online notice at the American Family Foundation website: http://tinyurl.com/37kep
"Did the cult Scientology bludgeon the IRS into a billion dollar tax revenue give-away?" Online article at factnet.org. http://tinyurl.com/ywept
Essays on Scientology. An online collection of 37 articles. http://tinyurl.com/2ho4m
Martin Gardner. "Propheteering business," Nature, 14 January 1988, p. 125 http://tinyurl.com/3ehor
L. Ron Hubbard. SCIENCE OF SURVIVAL (Los Angeles: Bridge Publications, original copyright 1951, edition 1989).
"Human rights group in hands of a cult." IOL World online news service, June 16, 2000. French anti-cult official claims that the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights has been infiltrated by the Church of Scientology. http://tinyurl.com/2g595
Jeff Jacobsen. "A Brief History of Scientology." Online article. http://tinyurl.com/2jsyj
Stephen A. Kent, "The Creation of �Religious� Scientology." Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1992. Published in RELIGIOUS STUDIES AND THEOLOGY, Vol. 18, No. 2, December 1999, pp. 97-126. This paper references L. Ron Hubbard�s Professional Auditor�s Bulletin, No. 31, 23 July 1954, "Duplication" which describes Hubbard�s belief that Christian clergy and psychiatrists "implanted" thetans (Scientology�s term for the soul) with false and misleading information in the cosmological past and that both occupations continue to implant people today. http://tinyurl.com/22xt4
Stephen Koff. "Scientology Faces New Charges of Harassment," ST. PETERSBURG [FLORIDA] TIMES, December 22, 1988. http://tinyurl.com/2erl5
John A. Lee. LEE REPORT ON DIANETICS AND SCIENTOLOGY. This is chapter 4 of SECTARIAN HEALERS AND HYPNOTHERAPY, a study for the Committee on the Healing Arts, Canadian government. Ontario, 1970. http://tinyurl.com/3hlyr
LMT Literati Contest: Essays on the nature of Scientology. Winning essays online: http://tinyurl.com/ywrkl
Eugene M. Methvin. "Scientology: The Sickness Spreads," READER�S DIGEST, October 1981. http://tinyurl.com/237px
Russell Miller. BARE-FACED MESSIAH: THE TRUE STORY OF L. RON HUBBARD (London: Michael Joseph Ltd., 1987). http://tinyurl.com/3d2sk
Bette Swenson Orsini and Charles Stafford won a Pulitzer Prize in 1980 for their 14-part investigation of the Church of Scientology for the ST. PETERSBURG [FLORIDA] TIMES. http://tinyurl.com/35jbv
REPORT OF THE BOARD OF ENQUIRY INTO SCIENTOLOGY, by Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C. Published 1965 by the State of Victoria, Australia. Also known as the "Anderson Report." Exhaustive report on Scientology. http://tinyurl.com/yq6co
Joel Sappell and Robert W. Welkos, "The Scientology Story," LOS ANGELES TIMES, a six-part series, June 24-29, 1990 http://tinyurl.com/3djd9
Scientology v. the IRS. An online clearinghouse for reports and court records on the Scientology v. IRS controversy. http://tinyurl.com/2t5yw
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES:
The official Church of Scientology website:
Websites for the Freezone, practicing Scientology outside the CoS:
Alternate views:
www.altreligionscientology.org
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