L. Ron Hubbard
Hubbard in 1950
Born	Lafayette Ronald Hubbard March 13, 1911 Tilden, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	January 24, 1986 (aged 74) Creston, California, U.S.
Other names	LRH
Education	George Washington University (dropped out)
Occupation	Author
Known for	Inventor of Scientology
Notable work	Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950) Battlefield Earth (1982)
Criminal charges	Petty theft (1948) Fraud (in absentia, 1978)
Criminal penalty	Fine of ₣35,000 and four years in prison (unserved)
Spouses	Margaret “Polly” Grubb     (m. 1933; div. 1947)​ Sara Northrup Hollister    (m. 1946; div. 1951)​ Mary Sue Whipp   (m. 1952)​
Children	7, including Ronald, Diana and Quentin
Relatives	Jamie DeWolf (great-grandson)
Military career
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1941–1945 (Active) 1945–1950 (Reserve)
Rank	Lieutenant
Commands held	USS YP-422 and USS PC-815
Battles/wars	World War II Pacific Theater
Awards	Navy Pistol Marksmanship Ribbon Navy Rifle Marksmanship Ribbon American Defense Service Medal Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal American Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal
Signature

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Scientology
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Controversies
Litigation Status by country Suppressive person Disconnection Fair game RPF The Hole Office of Special Affairs Guardian’s Office War on psychiatry

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established organizations to promote and practice Dianetics techniques. Hubbard created Scientology in 1952 after losing the intellectual rights to his literature on Dianetics in bankruptcy. He would lead the Church of Scientology, variously described as a cult,^[1] a new religious movement, or a business, until his death in 1986.

Born in Tilden, Nebraska, in 1911, Hubbard spent much of his childhood in Helena, Montana. While his father was posted to the U.S. naval base on Guam in the late 1920s, Hubbard traveled to Asia and the South Pacific. In 1930, Hubbard enrolled at George Washington University to study civil engineering but dropped out in his second year. He began his career as an author of pulp fiction and married Margaret Grubb, who shared his interest in aviation.

Hubbard was an officer in the Navy during World War II, where he briefly commanded two ships but was removed from command both times. The last few months of his active service were spent in a hospital, being treated for a variety of complaints. In 1953, the first churches of Scientology were founded by Hubbard. In 1954 a Scientology church in Los Angeles was founded, which became the Church of Scientology International. Hubbard added organizational management strategies, principles of pedagogy, a theory of communication and prevention strategies for healthy living to the teachings of Scientology.^[2] As Scientology came under increasing media attention and legal pressure in a number of countries during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Hubbard spent much of his time at sea as “commodore” of the Sea Organization, a private, quasi-paramilitary Scientologist fleet.

Hubbard returned to the United States in 1975 and went into seclusion in the California desert after an unsuccessful attempt to take over the town of Clearwater, Florida. In 1978, Hubbard was convicted of fraud after he was tried in absentia by France. In the same year, 11 high-ranking members of Scientology were indicted on 28 charges for their role in the Church’s Snow White Program, a systematic program of espionage against the United States government. One of the indicted was Hubbard’s wife Mary Sue Hubbard; he himself was named an unindicted co-conspirator. Hubbard spent the remaining years of his life in seclusion, attended to by a small group of Scientology officials.

Following his 1986 death, Scientology leaders announced that Hubbard’s body had become an impediment to his work and that he had decided to “drop his body” to continue his research on another plane of existence. The Church of Scientology describes Hubbard in hagiographic terms, though many of his autobiographical statements were fictitious. Sociologist Stephen Kent has observed that Hubbard “likely presented a personality disorder known as malignant narcissism.”^[3]

Life

Before Dianetics

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911,^[4] the only child of Ledora May Waterbury (1885–1959), who had trained as a teacher, and Harry Ross Hubbard (1886–1975), a low-ranking United States Navy officer.^[5][6] Like many military families of the era, the Hubbards repeatedly relocated around the United States and overseas.^[7] After moving to Kalispell, Montana, they settled in Helena in 1913.^[8] Hubbard’s father rejoined the Navy in April 1917, during World War I, while his mother worked as a clerk for the state government.^[9] After his father was posted to Guam, Hubbard and his mother traveled there with brief stop-overs in a couple of Chinese ports.^[10][11][12] In high school, Hubbard contributed to the school paper,^[13][14] but was dropped from enrollment due to failing grades.^[15] After he failed the Naval Academy entrance examination,^[16] Hubbard was enrolled in a Virginia Preparatory School to prepare him for a second attempt.^[17] However, after complaining of eye strain, Hubbard was diagnosed with myopia, precluding any future enrollment in the Naval Academy.^[15][18] As an adult, Hubbard would privately write to himself that his eyes had gone bad when he “used them as an excuse to escape the naval academy”.^[19]

Hubbard was sent to the Woodward School in D.C., as graduates qualified for admission to George Washington University without having to take the entrance exam. Hubbard graduated in June 1930 and entered GWU.^{[20][15][21][20]} Academically, Hubbard did poorly and was repeatedly warned about bad grades,^[15] but he contributed to the student newspaper and was active in the glider club.^[20] In 1932, Hubbard organized a student trip to the Caribbean, but amid multiple misfortunes and insufficient funding, the passengers took to burning Hubbard in effigy and the trip was canceled by the ship’s owners. Hubbard did not return to GWU the following year.^[22]

Hubbard spoke of interactions with psychiatrists at both St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital in D.C. (Left) and nearby Chestnut Lodge Sanitarium (Right).

For much of the 1920s and 1930s, Hubbard lived in Washington D.C., and he would later claim to have interacted with multiple psychiatrists in the city.^[23] Hubbard described encounters in 1923 and 1930 with navy psychiatrist Joseph Thompson.^[24][25] Thompson was controversial within the American psychiatric community for his support of lay analysis, the practice of psychoanalysis by those without medical degrees. Hubbard also recalled interacting with William Alanson White, supervisor of the D.C. psychiatric hospital St. Elizabeth’s.^[26][27][28] According to Hubbard, both White and Thompson had regarded his athleticism and lack of interest in psychology as signs of a good prognosis.^[29] Hubbard later claimed to have been trained by both Thompson and White.^[30] Hubbard also discussed his interactions at Chestnut Lodge, a D.C.-area facility specializing in schizophrenia, repeatedly complaining that their staff misdiagnosed an unnamed individual with the condition:

External videos
Hubbard lecture on schizophrenia and his interactions at Chestnut Lodge

There’s a place by the name of Walnut Lodge… They don’t see anything humorous in that, by the way… They sent three people to see me and every one of them was under treatment — and this was their staff! But anyway, very good people there, I’m sure… Didn’t happen to meet any. Have some fine patients though! Anyway, they treat only schizophrenia. And so they take only schizophrenics. Now how do they get only schizophrenics? Well, anybody sent to Walnut Lodge is a classified schizophrenic. And they take somebody who is a dementia praecox unclassified or a more modern definition, a mania-depressive and they take him from Saint Elizabeth’s and they take him over to Walnut Lodge and he goes onto the books as a schizophrenic. Why? Because Walnut Lodge takes only schizophrenics.^[31]

Pre-war fiction

In 1933, Hubbard renewed a relationship with a fellow glider pilot, Margaret “Polly” Grubb^[32] and the two were quickly married on April 13.^[33] The following year, she gave birth to a son who was named Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, Jr., later nicknamed “Nibs”.^[34] A second child, Katherine May, was born two years later.^[35] The Hubbards lived for a while in Laytonsville, Maryland, but were chronically short of money. In the spring of 1936, they moved to Bremerton, Washington. They lived there for a time with Hubbard’s aunts and grandmother before finding a place of their own at nearby South Colby. According to one of his friends at the time, Robert MacDonald Ford, the Hubbards were “in fairly dire straits for money” but sustained themselves on the income from Hubbard’s writing.^[36][37]

Hubbard began a writing career and tried to write for mainstream publications. Hubbard soon found his niche in the pulp fiction magazines, becoming a prolific and prominent writer in the medium. From 1934 until 1940, Hubbard produced hundreds of short stories and novels.^[38] Hubbard is remembered for his “prodigious output” across a variety of genres, including adventure fiction, aviation, travel, mysteries, westerns, romance, and science fiction.^[39] His first full-length novel, Buckskin Brigades, was published in 1937.^[40] The novel told the story of “Yellow Hair” a white man adopted into the Blackfeet tribe, with promotional material claiming the author had been a “bloodbrother” of the Blackfeet. The New York Times book review praised the book, writing “Mr. Hubbard has reversed a time-honored formula and has given a thriller to which, at the end of every chapter or so, another paleface bites the dust.”^[41]

On New Year’s Day, 1938, Hubbard reportedly underwent a dental procedure and reacted to the anesthetic gas used in the procedure.^[42] According to his account, this triggered a revelatory near-death experience. Allegedly inspired by this experience, Hubbard composed a manuscript, which was never published, with working titles of The One Command and Excalibur.^[43][44] Hubbard sent telegrams to several book publishers, but nobody bought the manuscript.^[45] Hubbard wrote to his wife:

Sooner or later Excalibur will be published… I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed. That goal is the real goal as far as I am concerned.^[46]

Hubbard found greater success after being taken under the supervision of editor John W. Campbell, who published many of Hubbard’s short stories and serialized novelettes in his magazines Unknown and Astounding Science Fiction.^[47][48] Hubbard’s novel Final Blackout told the story of a low-ranking British army officer who rises to become dictator of the United Kingdom.^[49] In July 1940, Campbell magazine Unknown published a psychological horror by Hubbard titled Fear about an ethnologist who becomes paranoid that demons are out to get him – the work was well-received, drawing praise from Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and others. In November and December 1940, Unknown serialized Hubbard novel Typewriter in the Sky about a pulp fiction writer whose friend becomes trapped inside one of his stories.^[50]

Military career

In 1941, Hubbard applied to join the United States Navy. His application was accepted, and he was commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in the United States Naval Reserve on July 19, 1941. By November, he was posted to New York for training as an intelligence officer.^[51] The day after Pearl Harbor, Hubbard was posted to the Philippines and departed the US bound for Australia. But while in Australia awaiting transport to the Philippines, Hubbard was suddenly ordered back to the United States after being accused by the US Naval Attaché to Australia of sending blockade-runner Don Isidro “three thousand miles out of her way”.^[52][53]

Hubbard’s first command was a yard patrol boat in Massachusetts (top), while his second was a West Coast sub-chaser (bottom). In both cases, Hubbard was relieved of command.

In June 1942, Hubbard was given command of a patrol boat at the Boston Navy Yard, but he was relieved after the yard commandant wrote that Hubbard was “not temperamentally fitted for independent command”.^[54] In 1943, Hubbard was given command of a submarine chaser, but only five hours into the shakedown cruise, Hubbard believed he had detected an enemy submarine. Hubbard and crew spent the next 68 hours engaged in combat. An investigation concluded that Hubbard had likely mistaken a “known magnetic deposit” for an enemy sub.^[55][56][57] The following month, Hubbard unwittingly fired upon Mexican territory and was relieved of command.^[58] In 1944, Hubbard served aboard the USS Algol before being transferred. The night before his departure, Hubbard reported the discovery of an attempted sabotage.^[59][60]

In June 1942, Navy records indicate that Hubbard suffered “active conjunctivitis” and later “urethral discharges”.^[61] After being relieved of command of the sub-chaser, Hubbard began reporting sick, citing a variety of ailments, including ulcers, malaria, and back pains. In July 1943, Hubbard was admitted to the San Diego naval hospital for observation—he would remain there for months.^[62] Years later, Hubbard would privately write to himself: “Your stomach trouble you used as an excuse to keep the Navy from punishing you.”^[19] On April 9, 1945, Hubbard again reported sick and was re-admitted to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Oakland.^[63][64] He was discharged from the hospital on December 4, 1945.^[65]

After the war

After Hubbard chose to stay in California rather than return to his family in Washington state,^[66] he moved into the Pasadena mansion of John “Jack” Whiteside Parsons, a rocket propulsion engineer and a leading follower of the English occultist Aleister Crowley.^[67][68] Hubbard befriended Parsons and soon became sexually involved with Parsons’s 21-year-old girlfriend, Sara “Betty” Northrup.^[69][70] Hubbard and Parsons collaborated on “Babalon Working“, a sex magic ritual intended to summon an incarnation of Babalon, the supreme Goddess in Crowley’s pantheon.^[71]

During this period, Hubbard authored a document which has been called the “Affirmations“, a series of statements relating to various physical, sexual, psychological and social issues that he was encountering in his life. The Affirmations appear to have been intended to be used as a form of self-hypnosis with the intention of resolving the author’s psychological problems and instilling a positive mental attitude.^[72][19]

Hubbard and Northrup aboard the schooner Blue Water II in June 1946 (left). The Church of Scientology has republished this photograph with Northrup (pictured right) airbrushed out.

Parsons, Hubbard and Sara invested nearly their entire savings — the vast majority contributed by Parsons and Sara — in a plan for Hubbard and Sara to buy yachts on the East Coast and sail them to the West Coast to sell. Hubbard had a different idea, writing to the U.S. Navy requesting permission to undertake a world cruise.^[73] Parsons attempted to recover his money by obtaining an injunction to prevent Hubbard and Sara leaving the country or disposing of the remnants of his assets, but ultimately only received a $2,900 promissory note from Hubbard. Parsons returned home “shattered” and was forced to sell his mansion.^[74][75]

On August 10, 1946, Hubbard married Sara, though he was still married to his first wife Polly. ^[76] Hubbard resumed his fiction writing to supplement his small disability allowance.^[77] In August 1947, Hubbard returned to the pages of Astounding with a serialized novel “The End is Not Yet”, about a young nuclear physicist who tries to stop a world takeover by building a new philosophical system.^[78] In October 1947, the magazine began serializing Ole Doc Methuselah, the first in a series about the “Soldiers of Light”, supremely skilled, extremely long-lived physicians. In February and March 1950, Campbell’s Astounding serialized the Hubbard novel To the Stars about young engineer on interstellar trading starship who learns that months aboard ship amounts to centuries on Earth, making the ship his only remaining home after his first voyage.^[48] During his time in California, Hubbard began acting as a sort of amateur stage hypnotist or “swami“.^[79][80]

Hubbard repeatedly wrote to the Veterans Administration (VA) asking for an increase in his war pension.^[81] Finally, in October 1947, he wrote to request psychiatric treatment:

After trying and failing for two years to regain my equilibrium in civil life, I am utterly unable to approach anything like my own competence. My last physician informed me that it might be very helpful if I were to be examined and perhaps treated psychiatrically or even by a psychoanalyst. Toward the end of my service I avoided out of pride any mental examinations, hoping that time would balance a mind which I had every reason to suppose was seriously affected. I cannot account for nor rise above long periods of moroseness and suicidal inclinations, and have newly come to realize that I must first triumph above this before I can hope to rehabilitate myself at all. … I cannot, myself, afford such treatment.
Would you please help me?^[82]

The VA eventually did increase his pension,^[83] but his money problems continued. In the summer of 1948, Hubbard was arrested by the San Luis Obispo sheriff on a charge of petty theft for passing a fraudulent check.^[84] Beginning in June 1948, the nationally-syndicated wire service United Press ran a story on an American Legion-sponsored psychiatric ward in Savannah, Georgia, which sought to keep mentally-ill war veterans out of jail.^[85][86] In late 1948, Hubbard and his second wife Sara moved from California to Savannah, Georgia, where he would later claim to have worked as a volunteer in a psychiatric clinic.^[87] Hubbard claimed he had “processed an awful lot of Negroes”^[88] and wrote of having observed a psychiatrist using the threat of institutionalization in a state hospital to solicit funds from a patient’s husband.^[89][90] In letters to friends sent from Savannah, Hubbard began to make the first public mentions of what was to become Dianetics.^[87]

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Jack Parson L Ron Hubbard Babalon Working vol. I

Stash368

February 12th, 2023.

The Babalon Working was a series of magic ceremonies or rituals performed from January to March 1946 by author, pioneer rocket-fuel scientist and occultist Jack Parsons and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

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In the Dianetics era

Inspired by science-fiction of his friend Robert Heinlein, Hubbard announced plans to write a book which would claim to “make supermen”.^[91] Hubbard announced to the public that there existed a superhuman condition which he called the state of “Clear”. He claimed people in that state would have a perfectly functioning mind with an improved intelligence quotient (IQ) and photographic memory.^[92] The “Clear” would be cured of physical ailments ranging from poor eyesight to the common cold, which Hubbard asserted were purely psychosomatic.^[93][94][95]

To promote his upcoming book, Hubbard enlisted his longtime-editor John Campbell, who had a fascination with fringe psychologies and psychic powers.^[96] Campbell invited Hubbard and Sara to move into a New Jersey cottage. Campbell, in turn, recruited an acquaintance, medical doctor Joseph Winter, to help promote the book. Campbell wrote Winter to extol Hubbard, claiming that Hubbard had worked with nearly 1000 cases and cured every single one.^[97] The birth of Hubbard’s second daughter Alexis Valerie, delivered by Winter on March 8, 1950, came in the middle of the preparations to launch Dianetics.^[98]

Dianetics means literally ‘through the mind’, although Hubbard defined it as ‘through the soul’:  Source
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Today in History: Dianetics Published (05-09-2022)

The basic content of Dianetics was a retelling of Psychoanalytic theory geared for a mass market English-speaking audience. Like Freud, Hubbard taught that the brain recorded memories (or “engrams”) which were stored in the unconscious mind (which Hubbard restyled “the reactive mind“). Past memories could be triggered later in life, causing psychological, emotional, or even physical problems. By sharing their memories with a friendly listener (or “auditor“), a person could overcome their past pain and thus cure themselves. Through Dianetics, Hubbard claimed that most illnesses were psychosomatic and caused by engrams, including arthritis, dermatitis, allergies, asthma, coronary difficulties, eye trouble, bursitis, ulcers, sinusitis and migraine headaches. He further claimed that dianetic therapy could treat these illnesses, and also included cancer and diabetes as conditions that Dianetic research was focused on.^[99]

Accompanied by an article in Astounding’s May 1950 issue, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was released on May 9.^[100] Although Dianetics was poorly received by the press and the scientific and medical professions, the book was an immediate commercial success and sparked “a nationwide cult of incredible proportions”.^[101][102] Five hundred Dianetic auditing groups were set up across the United States,^[101] and Hubbard established the “Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation”.^[103] Financial controls were lax, and Hubbard himself took large sums with no explanation of what he was doing with it.^[104]

Dianetics lost public credibility on August 10 when a presentation by Hubbard before an audience of 6,000 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles failed disastrously.^[105] He introduced a woman named Sonya Bianca and told the audience that as a result of undergoing Dianetic therapy she now possessed perfect recall, only for her to forget the color of Hubbard’s necktie. A large part of the audience walked out, and the debacle was publicized by popular science writer Martin Gardner.^[106][107] On September 3, psychologist Erich Fromm publicly derided Dianetics as a “mixture of some oversimplified truths, half truths and plain absurdities”; Fromm criticized the writing as “propagandistic” and likened it to the quack field of patent medicines.^[108] By late-1950, Hubbard’s foundations were in financial crisis. Hubbard’s publisher Arthur Ceppos, his longtime promoter Joseph Campbell, and medical doctor-turned-Dianetics endorser Joseph Winter all resigned under acrimonious circumstances.^[109][110]

In late-1950, Hubbard began an affair with employee Barbara Klowden, prompting Sara to start her own affair with Miles Hollister. On February 23, 1951, Sara and her lover consulted with a psychiatrist about Hubbard, who advised that Sara was in grave danger and Hubbard should be institutionalized. The trio telephoned Jack Maloney, the head of the Hubbard’s foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to request funding for the hospitalization. Maloney informed Hubbard of the plans to institutionalize him.^{[111][112][113]} That night, Hubbard and two trusted aides kidnapped Hubbard’s one-year-old daughter Alexis and wife Sara and attempted unsuccessfully to find a doctor to examine Sara and declare her insane.^[114] He let Sara go but took Alexis to Cuba. Hubbard denounced Sara and her lover to the FBI, portraying them in a letter as communist infiltrators. An agent annotated his correspondence with Hubbard with the comment, “Appears mental”.^[115]

On April 12, Sara’s story was published in the press, leading to headlines such as “Ron Hubbard Insane, Says His Wife”.^[116] Hubbard’s first wife evidently saw the headlines and wrote to Sara on May 2 offering her support. “Ron is not normal… Your charges probably sound fantastic to the average person – but I’ve been through it – the beatings, threats on my life, all the sadistic traits you charge – twelve years of it.”^[117] In June, Sara finally secured the return of her daughter by agreeing to a settlement in which she signed a statement, written by Hubbard, declaring that she had been misrepresented in the press and that she had always believed he was a “fine and brilliant man”.^[118]

Jersey Los Angeles Wichita Phoenix Philadelphia D.C.

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During the Dianetics and Scientology era, Hubbard regularly relocated across the country, living in Elizabeth, New Jersey (1950); Los Angeles (1950-51), Wichita (1951-52), Phoenix (1952-53), Philadelphia (December 1952), Camden, New Jersey (1953-55); and D.C. (1955-59). In 1959, after losing tax-exemption in the US, Hubbard relocated to England.

The Dianetics craze “burned itself out as quickly as it caught fire”,^[107] and the movement appeared to be on the edge of total collapse. However, it was temporarily saved by Don Purcell, a millionaire who agreed to support a new Foundation in Wichita, Kansas. In August 1951, Hubbard published Science of Survival. In that book, Hubbard introduced such concepts as the immortal soul (or “Thetan”) and past-life regressions (or “Whole Track Auditing”). The Wichita Foundation underwrote the costs of printing the book, but it recorded poor sales when first published, with only 1,250 copies of the first edition being printed.^[119] The Wichita Foundation became financially nonviable after a court ruled that it was liable for the unpaid debts of its defunct predecessor in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The ruling prompted Purcell and the other directors of the Wichita Foundation to file for voluntary bankruptcy in February 1952.^[120] Hubbard resigned immediately and accused Purcell of having been bribed by the American Medical Association to destroy Dianetics.^[121] Hubbard emptied the Wichita foundation’s bank accounts, in part through forgery.^[122]

Pivot to Scientology

Having lost the rights to Dianetics, Hubbard created Scientology. At a convention in Wichita, Hubbard announced that he had discovered a new science beyond Dianetics which he called “Scientology”. Whereas the goal of Dianetics had been to reach a superhuman state of “Clear”, Scientology promised a chance to achieve god-like powers in a state called Operating Thetan. Hubbard introduced a device called an “electropsychometer” (or e-meter), which called for users to hold two metal cans^[123] in their hands to measure changes in skin conductivity due to variance in sweat or grip. In 1906, Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung had famously used such a device in a study of word association.^[124][125] Rather than a mundane biofeedback device, Hubbard presented the e-meter as having “an almost mystical power to reveal an individual’s innermost thoughts”.^[126][127]

Hubbard married a staff member, 20-year-old Mary Sue Whipp, and the pair moved to Phoenix, Arizona.^[128] Hubbard was joined by his 18-year-old son Nibs, who had become a Scientology staff member and “professor”.^[129][130] Scientology was organized in a different way from the decentralized Dianetics movement — The Hubbard Association of Scientologists (HAS) was the only official Scientology organization. Branches or “orgs” were organized as franchises, rather like a fast food restaurant chain. Each franchise holder was required to pay ten percent of income to Hubbard’s central organization.^[131] In July, Hubbard published “What to Audit” (later re-titled Scientology: A History of Man), which taught everyone has subconscious traumatic memories of their past lives as clams, sloths, and cavemen which cause neuroses and health problems. In November 1952, Hubbard published Scientology 8-80, followed up in December with Scientology 8-8008, which argued that the physical universe is the creation of the mind.^[132]: 103

In December, Hubbard gave a seventy-hour series of lectures in Philadelphia that was attended by 38 people in which he delved into the occult.^[134] In the lectures, Hubbard connects rituals and the practice of Scientology to the magickal practices of Aleister Crowley, ^[135] recommending Crowley’s book The Master Therion.^[136] During the Philadelphia course, Hubbard joked that he was “the prince of darkness,” which was met with laughter from the audience.^[137] On December 16, 1952, Hubbard was arrested in the middle of a lecture for failing to return $9,000 withdrawn from the Wichita Foundation. He eventually settled the debt by paying $1,000 and returning a car belonging to Wichita financier Don Purcell.^[138]

In April 1953, Hubbard proposed setting up a chain of “Spiritual Guidance Centers” as part of what he called “the religion angle”.^{[139][140][141][142]} On December 18, 1953, Hubbard incorporated the Church of Scientology in Camden, New Jersey.^[143][144] The religious transformation was explained as a way to protect Scientologists from charges of practicing medicine without a license.^[145] The idea may not have been new; Hubbard has been quoted as telling a science fiction convention in 1948: “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.”^{[115][146][147][148]}

In the Church of Scientology era

By 1954, the IRS recognized the Church of Scientology of California as a tax-exempt organization and by 1966, the Washington, D.C. Founding Church of Scientology received tax-exempt status nationwide. The Church of Scientology became a highly profitable enterprise for Hubbard,^[149] as he was paid a percentage of the Church’s gross income. By 1957 he was being paid about $250,000 (equivalent to US$2,712,085 in 2023).^[150] His family grew, too, with Mary Sue giving birth to three more children—Quentin on January 6, 1954;^[151] Suzette on February 13, 1955;^[152] and Arthur on June 6, 1958.^[153]

Hubbard was notorious for his policies of attacking his perceived enemies. Nibs recalled that Hubbard “only knew how to do one thing and that was to destroy people.”^[155] Hubbard told Scientologists to “Don’t ever defend, always attack,” encouraging them to find or manufacture evidence and to file harassing lawsuits against enemies.^[156] Any individual breaking away from Scientology and setting up his own group was to be shut down.^[157] Most of the formerly independent Scientology and Dianetics groups were either driven out of business or were absorbed into Hubbard’s organizations. Hubbard finally achieved victory over Don Purcell in 1954 when the latter, worn out by constant litigation, handed the copyrights of Dianetics back to Hubbard.^[158]

After dealing with Purcell, Hubbard turned his attention to attacking psychiatrists, who he blamed for the backlash against Dianetics and Scientology.^[159] In 1955, Hubbard authored a text titled: Brain-Washing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics which purported to be a secret manual linking Psychiatry and Communism written by a Soviet secret police chief.^[160][161] Hubbard founded the “National Academy of American Psychology” which sought to issue a “loyalty oath” to psychologists and psychiatrists. Those who opposed the oath were to be labelled “Subversive psychiatrists”, while those who merely refused to sign the oath would be labelled “Potentially Subversive”.^[162][163] Hubbard denounced psychiatric abuses, writing that psychoanalysis had been “superseded by tyrannous sadism, practiced by unprincipled men”. Wrote Hubbard:

Today men who call themselves analysts are merrily sawing out patients’ brains, shocking them with murderous drugs, striking them with high voltages, burying them underneath mounds of ice, placing them in restraints, ‘sterilizing’ them sexually and generally conducting themselves much as their patients would were they given the chance.

In 1956, Hubbard released Fundamentals of Thought, which teaches that life is a game and divides people into pieces, players, and game-makers. The following year, Hubbard published All About Radiation, which falsely claimed that radiation poisoning and even cancer can be cured by vitamins. In 1958, amid widespread interest in the Bridey Murphy case, Hubbard authored Have You Lived Before This Life?, a collection of past life regressions.^[164]

In 1958, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service withdrew the Washington, D.C., Church of Scientology’s tax exemption after it found that Hubbard and his family were profiting unreasonably from Scientology’s ostensibly non-profit income.^[149] In the spring of 1959, Hubbard purchased Saint Hill Manor, an 18th-century English country house formerly owned by the Maharaja of Jaipur. The house became Hubbard’s permanent residence and an international training center for Scientologists.^[165]

That year Hubbard learned his son Nibs had resigned from the organization, citing financial difficulties. Hubbard regarded the departure as a betrayal.^[166] Hubbard introduced “security checking“,^[156] a structured interrogation using the e-meter, to identify those he termed “potential trouble sources” and “suppressive persons“. Members of the Church of Scientology were interrogated with the aid of E-meters and were asked questions such as “Have you ever practiced homosexuality?” and “Have you ever had unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard?”^[167]

Since its inception, Hubbard marketed Dianetics and Scientology through false medical claims. On January 4, 1963, US Food and Drug Administration agents raided American offices of the Church of Scientology, seizing over a hundred E-meters as illegal medical devices, thousands of pills being marketed as “radiation cures”, and tons of literature that they accused of making false medical claims.^{[168][169][170][171]} In November 1963 Victoria, Australia, the government opened an inquiry into the Church, which was accused of brainwashing, blackmail, extortion and damaging the mental health of its members.^[172] [173] Its report, published in October 1965, condemned every aspect of Scientology and Hubbard himself.^[174] The report led to Scientology being banned in Victoria,^[175] Western Australia and South Australia,^[176] and led to more negative publicity around the world. Public perceptions of Scientology changed from “relatively harmless, if cranky” to an “evil, dangerous” group that performs hypnosis and brainwashing.^[172] Scientology attracted increasingly unfavorable publicity across the English-speaking world.^[177]

Hubbard took major new initiatives in the face of these challenges. By 1965, “Ethics Technology” was introduced to tighten internal discipline within Scientology. It required Scientologists to “disconnect” from any organization or individual—including family members—deemed to be disruptive or “suppressive”.^[178] Scientologists were also required to write “Knowledge Reports” on each other, reporting transgressions or misapplications of Scientology methods. Hubbard promulgated a long list of punishable “Misdemeanors”, “Crimes”, and “High Crimes”.^[179] At the start of March 1966, Hubbard created the Guardian’s Office (GO), a new agency within the Church of Scientology that was headed by his wife Mary Sue.^[180] It dealt with Scientology’s external affairs, including public relations, legal actions and the gathering of intelligence on perceived threats.^[181] As Scientology faced increasingly negative media attention, the GO retaliated with hundreds of writs for libel and slander; it issued more than forty on a single day.^[182] Hubbard ordered his staff to find “lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence [sic] on [Scientology’s] attackers”.^[183] The “fair game” policy was codified in 1967, which was applicable to anyone deemed an “enemy” of Scientology: “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.”^[184][185]

External videos
L. Ron Hubbard Interview in Rhodesia, May 1966

Newspapers and politicians in the UK pressed the British government for action against Scientology. In April 1966, hoping to form a remote “safe haven” for Scientology, Hubbard traveled to the southern African country Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Despite his attempts to curry favour with the local government, Rhodesia promptly refused to renew Hubbard’s visa, compelling him to leave the country.^{[186]: 80–81} Finally, at the end of 1966, Hubbard acquired his own fleet of three ships.^[67] In July 1968, the British Minister of Health announced that foreign Scientologists would no longer be permitted to enter the UK and Hubbard himself was excluded from the country as an “undesirable alien“.^[187][188] Further inquiries were launched in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.^[176]

In the Sea Org era

Hubbard purchased a ship in Las Palmas and founded the “Sea Org“, a private navy of elite Scientologists. Hubbard set out to take command of the ship. Enroute, he wrote OT III, the esoteric story of Xenu.^[189][190] In a letter to his wife Mary Sue,^{[191]: 58–59, 332–333} Hubbard said that, in order to assist his research, he was drinking alcohol and taking stimulants and depressants.^[192] In OT III, Hubbard reveals the secrets of an immense disaster that had occurred “on this planet, and on the other seventy-five planets which form this Confederacy, seventy-five million years ago”.^[193] It teaches that Xenu, the leader of the Galactic Confederacy, had shipped billions of people to Earth and blown them up with hydrogen bombs, following which their traumatized spirits were stuck together at “implant stations”, brainwashed with false memories and eventually became contained within human beings.^[194]

When Hubbard established the Sea Org he publicly declared that he had relinquished his management responsibilities over the Church of Scientology. In fact, he received daily telex messages from Scientology organizations around the world reporting their statistics and income. The Church of Scientology sent him $15,000 a week along with millions of dollars that were transferred to bank accounts.^[195] Church of Scientology couriers arrived regularly, conveying luxury food for Hubbard and his family or cash that had been smuggled from England to avoid currency export restrictions.^[196][197] Hubbard’s fleet began sailing from port to port in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern North Atlantic, rarely staying anywhere for longer than six weeks, as Hubbard claimed he was being pursued by enemies whose interference could lead to global chaos or nuclear war.^[198]

External videos
“The Shrinking World of L. Ron Hubbard”, 1967 interview with Hubbard

Though Scientologists around the world were presented with a glamorous picture of life in the Sea Org and many applied to join Hubbard aboard the fleet, the reality was rather different.^[199] Most of those joining had no nautical experience at all.^[199] Mechanical difficulties and blunders by the crews led to a series of embarrassing incidents and near-disasters. Following one incident in which the rudder of the Royal Scotman was damaged during a storm, Hubbard ordered the ship’s entire crew to be reduced to a “condition of liability” and wear gray rags tied to their arms.^[200] The ship itself was treated the same way, with dirty tarpaulins tied around its funnel to symbolize its lower status. According to those aboard, conditions were appalling; the crew was worked to the point of exhaustion, given meager rations and forbidden to wash or change their clothes for several weeks.^[201] Hubbard maintained a harsh disciplinary regime aboard the fleet, punishing mistakes by confining people in the Royal Scotman‘s bilge tanks without toilet facilities and with food provided in buckets.^[202] At other times erring crew members or students were thrown overboard with Hubbard looking on and, occasionally, filming.^[203] One member of the Sea Org recalled Hubbard punishing a little boy by confining him to the ship’s chain locker.^[204]

Aboard ship, Hubbard began dispatching teams of Sea Org members to search for historic evidence of his past lives; In 1973, he published Mission into Time about those searches.^[205] Now having his own paramilitary force, orders to use R2-45 (killing someone with a .45 pistol) on specific individuals were published.^[206][207] From about 1970, Hubbard was attended aboard ship by the children of Sea Org members, organized as the Commodore’s Messenger Organization (CMO). They were mainly young girls dressed in hot pants and halter tops, who were responsible for running errands for Hubbard such as lighting his cigarettes, dressing him or relaying his verbal commands to other members of the crew.^[208][209] In addition to his wife Mary Sue, he was accompanied by all four of his children by her, who were all members of the Sea Org and shared its rigors.^[166]

After his prior failure in Rhodesia, Hubbard again tried to establish a safe haven in a friendly country, this time Greece.^[210] The fleet stayed at the Greek island of Corfu for several months in 1968–1969. Hubbard, recently expelled from Britain, renamed the ships after Greek gods—the Royal Scotman was rechristened Apollo—and he praised the recently established military dictatorship.^[196] Despite Hubbard’s hopes, in March 1969 Hubbard and his ships were ordered to leave.^[211]

The practice of prominently displaying the cross in Scientology centers was instituted in 1969 following hostile press coverage where Scientology’s status as a legitimate religion was being questioned.^[212] In October 1969, The Sunday Times published an exposé by Australian journalist Alex Mitchell detailing Hubbard’s occult experiences with Parsons and Aleister Crowley’s teachings.^[213][214] The Church responded with a statement, claiming without evidence Hubbard was sent in by the US Government to “break up Black Magic in America” and succeeded.^[215]

In mid-1972, Hubbard again tried to find a safe haven, this time in Morocco, establishing contacts with the country’s secret police and training senior policemen and intelligence agents in techniques for detecting subversives.^[216] The program ended in failure when it became caught up in internal Moroccan politics, and Hubbard left the country hastily in December 1972.^[217] After French prosecutors charged Hubbard with fraud and customs violations, Hubbard risked extradition to France.^[191]: 94 In response, at the end of 1972, Hubbard left the Sea Org fleet temporarily, living incognito in Queens, New York.^[218] Hubbard’s health deteriorated significantly during this period, as he was an overweight chain-smoker, suffered from bursitis and had a prominent growth on his forehead.^[219] In September 1973 when the threat of extradition had abated, Hubbard left New York, returning to his flagship. ^[220]

Hubbard suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident on the island of Tenerife in December 1973. In 1974, Hubbard established the Rehabilitation Project Force, a punishment program for Sea Org members who displeased him.^[221] Hubbard’s son Quentin reportedly found it difficult to adjust and attempted suicide in mid-1974.^[222] Also in 1974, L. Ron Hubbard confessed to two top executives^[223] that “People do not [leave Scientology] because of [their unconfessed sins], they leave because [they stop liking Scientology or stop believing in it]”.^[224] Hubbard warned “If any of this information ever became public, I would lose all control of the orgs and eventually Scientology as a whole.”^[225]

Throughout this period, Hubbard was heavily involved in directing the activities of the Guardian’s Office (GO), the legal bureau/intelligence agency.^[226] In 1973, he instigated the “Snow White Program” and directed the GO to remove negative reports about Scientology from government files and track down their sources.^[227] The GO carried out covert campaigns on his behalf such as Operation Bulldozer Leak, designed to convince authorities that Hubbard had no legal liability for the actions of the church. Hubbard was kept informed of these operations, including as the theft of medical records from a hospital, harassment of psychiatrists, and infiltrations of organizations such as the Better Business Bureau, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, U.S. Department of Justice, and Internal Revenue Service.^[228] [229] Paulette Cooper, a freelance journalist and scientology critic, was subjected to at least at least 19 lawsuits, framed for sending bomb threats, and was urged to climb onto a dangerous 33rd-floor ledge by a roommate later believed to be a Guardian’s Office agent.^{[230][231][231]: 129-136,167–168,286,376 [232][233]}

In hiding

On June 11, 1976, the FBI apprehended two Guardian’s Office agents inside the US Courthouse in D.C., prompting Hubbard to move cross country to a safe house in California, and later a nearby ranch. On October 28, 1976, Las Vegas police discovered Hubbard’s son Quentin Hubbard unconscious in his car with a hose connected to the tailpipe.^[235] L. Ron Hubbard was furious at the news, shouting, “That stupid fucking kid! Look what he’s done to me!”^[236][237] Scientologists were told that Quentin had died from encephalitis.^[238]

On July 8, 1977, the FBI carried out simultaneous raids on Guardian’s Office locations in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.^[239][240] They retrieved wiretap equipment, burglary tools and some 90,000 pages of incriminating documents.^[241] On July 15, a week after the raid, Hubbard fled with Pat Broeker to Sparks, Nevada. On August 18, 1978, Hubbard suffered from a pulmonary embolism and fell into a coma, but recovered.^[242][243] Hubbard summoned his personal auditor, David Mayo, to heal him.^[244]

The distinctive logo designed by Hubbard has been constructed at Trementina (top) and at the ranch in Creston (middle) where Hubbard ultimately died. The logo is speculated to derive from the Kool cigarettes logo, Hubbard’s preferred brand.^[245]

In August 1979, Hubbard saw his wife for the last time.^[246] Hubbard was facing a possible indictment for his role in Operation Freakout, a campaign of attacks against journalist Paulette Cooper. In February 1980, Hubbard disappeared into deep cover in the company of two trusted messengers, Pat and Annie Broeker.^[247][248] For the first few years of the 1980s, Hubbard and the Broekers toured the Pacific Northwest in a recreational vehicle, later residing in Southern California.^[249] Hubbard returned to Science-Fiction, writing Battlefield Earth (1982) and Mission Earth, a ten-volume series published between 1985 and 1987.^[250]

In OT VIII, dated 1980, Hubbard explains the document is intended for circulation only after his death. In the document, Hubbard denounces the historic Jesus as “a lover of young boys” given to “uncontrollable bursts of temper”.^[251] Hubbard explains that “My mission could be said to fulfill the Biblical promise represented by this brief anti-Christ period.“^[252] This was corroborated by a 1983 interview where Hubbard’s son Nibs explained that his father believed he was the Anti-Christ.^[253][254]

External videos
Nibs Hubbard testimony Day 1 and Day 2
Nibs Hubbard interviewed by Carol Randolph
Jamie DeWolf reads grandfather Nibs’s memoir

In December 1985, Hubbard allegedly attempted suicide by custom e-meter.^[255] On January 17, 1986, Hubbard suffered a stroke; he died a week later.^[256] His body was cremated and the ashes were scattered at sea.^[257][258]

Sources and doctrines

Hubbard has been described as an “eclectic and ingenious” religious innovator who cobbled together ideas from a diverse array of sources and traditions.^[259] Hubbard explicitly cited Freud’s psychoanalysis as a source for Dianetics and Scientology, renaming some terms.^[260][261] Hubbard’s wife Sara recalled him discussing biologist Richard Semon, who had coined the term “engram” which became a centerpiece of Dianetics.^[261] Hubbard incorporated the 1920s psychoanalytic theory of birth trauma and taught his followers to maintain total silence during the birth process.^[262][261] Hubbard explicitly credited Social Darwinism pioneer Herbert Spencer who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest,” and taught that the ‘one command’ given to all life is to “survive” and later authored a book called Science of Survival.^[261]

Hubbard cited author Alfred Korzybski as an influence; after two years observing patients at St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital in D.C. in collaboration with superintendent William Alanson White, Korzybski published a tome titled Science and Sanity outlining a doctrine he called “General Semantics“.^[263] After Korzybski founded an “Institute” to promote his teachings and began offering seminars, his ideas were incorporated into the science-fiction of Hubbard-associates Van Vogt and Heinlein, who envisioned futures where research into General Semantics had transformed some individuals into superhumans; Hubbard cited this fiction in a letter announcing the central principles of Dianetics: a book that promises to “make supermen”.^[91]

Through his exposure to both psychoanalysts and occultists, Hubbard drew inspiration from Eastern religions. Hubbard cited psychiatrist Joseph Thompson as teaching him the adage “If it’s not true for you, it’s not true.”, a purportedly-Buddhist maxim which was later incorporated into Scientology.^[264][265] Reincarnation, originally a dharmic doctrine, entered Western occultism through the works of Blavatsky and numerous others. Fifteen years after Blavatsky followers unveiled “The Bridge to Freedom“, Hubbard announced “The Bridge to Total Freedom“.

Hubbard’s son Nibs said that Aleister Crowley was his father’s most important source of inspiration, and scholar Hugh Urban has written extensively about the occult roots of Scientology.^[266] Nibs Hubbard said in an interview in 1983:^[267]

What a lot of people don’t realize is that Scientology is black magic that is just spread out over a long time period. To perform black magic generally takes a few hours or, at most, a few weeks. But in Scientology it’s stretched out over a lifetime, and so you don’t see it.

Like Crowley, Hubbard identified himself with diabolical figures from the Book of Revelation. Just as Aleister Crowley taught a soul could temporarily leave their body through astral projection, Hubbard taught a thetan could journey outside the body by “going exterior”.^[268]

Hubbard also taught extensively about hypnosis and recommended a 1949 book on the subject.^[269][261] Hubbard told of hypnotic implants, privately teaching human religions are the product of such implants. The use of hypnosis or trance to remember past lives was an extant practice in occult circles prior to Dianetics.^[270] Hubbard incorporated a range of hypnotic techniques into Scientology auditing and courses.^[271] They are employed as a means to create dependency and obedience in his followers.^[271] Crowley and Hubbard both placed emphasis on a Goddess figure, variously called Babalon, Hathor, or Diana – a name Hubbard gave to a ship and a daughter; the term Dianetics may have been inspired by the Goddess.^[272] Crowley taught a sex magic ritual called karezza or Dianism which Hubbard is believed to have practiced.^[272]

The e-meter was constructed by inventor Volney Mathison, who introduced it to Hubbard. Similar devices had been in use by psychiatrists and law enforcement for decades. Hubbard likened his own teachings about interstellar empires and invader forces to the early 20th-century fiction genre Space Opera.^[273] Hubbard drew upon US Navy traditions in creating the Sea Org, and he once said the Commodore’s Messenger Organization had been inspired by the Hitler Youth.^[274]

False biographical claims

Throughout his life, Hubbard made grossly exaggerated or outright false claims about himself. His estranged son Nibs reported that “Ninety-nine percent of what my father ever wrote or said about himself” was false. An acquaintance who knew Hubbard in Pasadena recalled recognizing Hubbard’s epic autobiographical tales as being adapted from the writings of others.^[275] In October 1984, an American judge issued a ruling, writing of Hubbard that “the evidence portrays a man who has been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history, background and achievements.”^[276] In his private “Affirmations”, Hubbard wrote to himself:

You can tell all the romantic tales you wish… you know which ones were lies… You are gallant and dashing and need tell no lies at all. You have enough real experience to make anecdotes forever. Stick to your true adventures. Or if you wish, as you will, tell adventures which happened to others – People accept them better.^[277]

Hubbard described his grandfather as a “wealthy Western cattleman”, but contemporary records show that Hubbard’s grandfather, Lafayette Waterbury, was a veterinarian, not a rancher, and was not wealthy. Hubbard claimed to be a “blood brother” of the Native American Blackfeet tribe, but Hubbard lived over a hundred miles from the Blackfeet reservation and the tribe did not practice blood brotherhood.^{[278][279][8]} Hubbard claimed to have been the youngest Eagle Scout in Boy Scouts history, but in fact the organization kept no records of the ages of Eagle Scouts.^[280]

Hubbard claimed to have traveled to Manchuria, but his diary did not record it.^[281] Hubbard claimed to be a graduate engineer, but in fact he earned poor grades at university, was placed on probation in September 1931 and dropped out altogether in the fall of 1932.^{[132]: 31 [282][132]: 31} Hubbard used the title “Doctor”, but his only doctorate was from a diploma mill. Hubbard claimed to have been crippled and blinded in combat, but records show he was never wounded and never received a Purple Heart (a decoration given to all US servicemen wounded in action). Hubbard’s Navy service records indicate that he received only four campaign medals rather than the twenty-one claimed by Church biographies.^[57]

Legacy

Hubbard was survived by his wife Mary Sue and all of his children except his second son Quentin. His will provided a trust fund to support Mary Sue; her children Arthur, Diana and Suzette; and Katherine, the daughter of his first wife Polly.^[283] He disinherited two of his other children.^[284] L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. had become estranged, changed his name to “Ronald DeWolf” and, in 1982, sued unsuccessfully for control of his father’s estate.^[285] Alexis Valerie, Hubbard’s daughter by his second wife Sara, had attempted to contact her father in 1971. She was rebuffed with the implied claim that her real father was Jack Parsons rather than Hubbard, and that her mother had been a Nazi spy during the war.^[286] Both later accepted settlements when litigation was threatened.^[284] In 2001, Diana and Suzette were reported to still be Church members, while Arthur had left and become an artist. Hubbard’s great-grandson, Jamie DeWolf, is a noted slam poet.^[287]

Opinions are divided about Hubbard’s literary legacy. One sociologist argued that even at Hubbard’s peak in the late 1930s, he was regarded as merely “a passable, familiar author but not one of the best”, while by the late-1970s “the [science fiction] subculture wishes it could forget him” and fans gave him a worse rating than any other of the “Golden Age” writers.^[288] The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction argues that while Hubbard could not be considered a peer of the “prime movers” like Asimov, Heinlein, and Sprague de Camp, Hubbard could be classed with Van Vogt as “rogue members of the early Campbell pantheon”.^[49] Hubbard received various posthumous awards, having a street named after in him in Los Angeles and recognition of his birthday in Utah and New Jersey.^{[289][290][291][292]}

Hubbard’s teachings led to numerous offshoots and splinter groups. In 1966, two former Scientologists founded the Process Church of the Final Judgment which mixed Hubbard’s teachings with Satanism. In 1969, a group led by former Scientologists Charles Manson and Bruce M. Davis was arrested and later convicted for their role in a series of high-profile murders. In 1971, former Scientologist Werner Erhard founded EST, a notable large group awareness training. In 1998, Keith Raniere drew upon Hubbard’s writings and Erhard’s techinques to create the large group awareness training ESP, a forerunner to the group NXIVM. Raniere offered students a chance to reach a superhuman state called “Unified” and taught Hubbard’s doctrine of “suppressive persons”; Raniere was ultimately sentenced to 120 years for a pattern of crimes, including the sexual exploitation of a child, sex trafficking of women, and conspiracy to commit forced labor.^[293][294] In 2010, the Nation of Islam began introducing its followers to Hubbard’s teachings, with leader Louis Farrakhan proclaiming “I thank God for Mr. L. Ron Hubbard!”^[295][296]

In Scientology

After his death, Scientology leaders announced that Hubbard’s body had become an impediment to his work and that he had decided to “drop his body” to continue his research.^[297][298] The copyrights of his works and much of his estate were willed to the Church of Scientology.^[299] According to the church, Hubbard’s entire corpus of Scientology and Dianetics texts are etched onto steel tablets in a vault under a mountain, on top of which a Hubbard-designed logo has been bulldozed, intended to be visible from space.^[300][301]

Hubbard’s presence pervades Scientology, and his birthday is celebrated annually.^[302] Every Church of Scientology maintains an office reserved for Hubbard, with a desk, chair and writing equipment, ready to be used.^[299] Hubbard is regarded as the ultimate source of Scientology, and is often referred to as simply “Source”, and he has no successor.^[303][304] Scientology has been described as “a movement focused on the figure of Hubbard”.^[305] Hubbard is presented as “the master of a multitude of disciplines” who performed extraordinary feats as a photographer, composer, scientist, therapist, explorer, navigator, philosopher, poet, artist, humanitarian, adventurer, soldier, scout, musician and many other fields of endeavor.^[306] Busts and portraits of Hubbard are commonplace throughout Scientology organizations, and meetings involve a round of applause to Hubbard’s portrait.^{[307]: 29–30 [308]} In 2009, the American Religious Identification Survey found that 25,000 Americans identified as Scientologists.^[309]

Scientology’s sacred texts are inextricably linked to L. Ron Hubbard. According to Scientology’s official doctrine, “Hubbard is the sole author or narrator of each and every one of the religion’s sacred books; indeed he is considered to be the single orchestrating genrius behind everything Scientological.” Scientologists consider everything Hubbard ever said in verbal or written terms as “scripture.”^[310]

In popular culture

External videos
1980s advertisement for Dianetics
“This is What Scientologists Actually Believe” clip from South Park, 2005
“How Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard Came Up With Their Big Ideas”, Cracked, 2012
“Black Scientologists”, The Eric Andre Show, December 5, 2013
Neurotology Music Video – SNL, satirizing the 1990 music video We Stand Tall
“Hubbard meets Parsons” in Strange Angel episode Aeon, July 25, 2019

In the mid-1980s, the church began to promote Dianetics with a radio and television advertising blitz that was “virtually unprecedented in book circles”.^[311] In March 1988, Dianetics topped the best-seller lists nationwide through an organized campaign of mass bookbuying. Booksellers reported patrons buying hundreds of copies at once and later receiving ostensibly-new books from the publisher with store price stickers already attached.^[311] Hubbard’s number of followers peaked in the early 1990s with roughly 100,000 scientologists worldwide.^[312]

On November 21, 1997, the Fox network aired an episode of X-Files spinoff Millennium titled “Jose Chung’s Doomsday Defense” which satirized Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’s biography in an brief opening narration about a character named “Juggernaut Onan Goopta” who dreamt of becoming a neuroscientist only to discover that “his own brain could not comprehend basic biology”.^[313] The character switches to philosophy, but “while reading Kirkegaard’s ‘The Sickness unto Death‘, he became sick and nearly died”; After writing an entire book in a “single, feverish night” that changed the course of human history, the character began lecturing to standing room only crowds, “for he shrewdly refrained from providing chairs.” In a satire of both Hubbard and George Santayana, the character explains that painful memories must be exterminated, saying “those who cannot forget their past, are condemned to repeat it.” The character establishes an institute where patients are called ‘doctors’ and founds a religious order called Selfosophy staffed by an elite paramilitary inspired by the US Postal Service. We are told the character died of cancer or “molted his earthly encumbrance to pursue his Selfosophical research in another dimension”.^[314]

On February 8, 1998, Fox comedy The Simpsons broadcast “The Joy of Sect“, satirizing Hubbard and Scientology when the family joins a group called the Movementarians ruled over by a figure called “The Leader” who physically resembles L. Ron Hubbard. The Movementarians’ use of a 10-trillion-year commitment for its members alludes to the billion-year contract and both groups make extensive use of litigation.^[315]

In 2015, Saturday Night Live satirized Hubbard, with cast member Bobby Moynihan  (above right)  using similar costumes and staging as shown in historic footage of Hubbard (above left). A caption reads “Died of Pink Eye”, referencing Hubbard’s wartime diagnosis of conjunctivitis.

In 2000, Hubbard’s novel was adapted into a film called Battlefield Earth, starring long-time Scientology celebrity John Travolta. In 2001, a film titled The Profit parodied Scientology and Hubbard.^[316] In 2005, animated comedy South Park aired the episode “Trapped in the Closet” in which protagonist Stan is believed to be the reincarnation of Hubbard. The episode broadcast the great secret behind the church—a condensed version of the Xenu story while an on-screen caption reads “This is what Scientologists actually believe”.^[317][318] Prior to the episode, the story was almost completely unknown in mainstream culture.^[319]

Paul Thomas Anderson‘s 2012 film The Master features a religious leader named Lancaster Dodd, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is based on Hubbard and shares a physical resemblance to him.^{[320][321][322][323]} The film depicts a Navy washout with psychological issues who is unable to hold down steady employment after the war. Facing potential legal troubles, he flees California by stowing away on a ship captained by self-proclaimed nuclear physicist and philosopher Lancaster Dodd, leader of a movement called “The Cause”.^[324]

On December 5, 2013, The Eric Andre Show aired a comedy sketch titled “Black Scientologists” where André’s character proclaims “Not a lot of people know this, but L. Ron Hubbard was a black man. His real name was L. Ron Hoyabembe!”, while revealing an artist’s conception of Hubbard wearing an afro. In April 2015, following the recent release of Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Saturday Night Live aired a music video featuring the “Church of Neurotology“, a parody of Scientology’s 1990 music video “We Stand Tall“. Bobby Moynihan played a Hubbard-lookalike in the video.^[325] From 2018 to 2019, the show Strange Angel dramatized the life of Jack Parsons. In the season 2 cliffhanger, actor Daniel Abeles played Hubbard; The series was never renewed.^[326]

According to Hugh B. Urban in the book Handbook of Scientology, the nature of popular media accounts of Scientology is largely due to its culture of secrecy. An example of Scientology being “America’s most secretive religion” is the documentary The Secrets of Scientology. Urban states, “However, while these popular accounts are often sensational and not particularly balanced, they do highlight the fact that secrecy has in fact been a pervasive aspect of the church from its inception.” ^[327]: 279

Scientology’s Relatives of Gnosticism and Satanism    excerpts only view the full document by clicking the title above.

thirdmill.org

https://thirdmill.org › jos_nally › jos_nally.cb.html

The church today is in a fight; it is to “resist the devil” by submitting itself to God (Jam 4:17). However, how does the church community submit itself to God? We submit to God by faithfully feeding upon His Word, relational prayer, church, community, the sacraments, employing our gifts, giving, ministering, etc. Moreover, we must not only understand God more fully, but ourselves, 9 the world around us, and our enemies as well. As Paul writes, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor 2:11, KJV)

By Joseph R. Nally

Theological Editor
Third Millennium Ministries

Gnosticism

“Scientology offers [G]nosticism as a substitute for the Gospel.” 23 What is Gnosticism? Gnosticism is a system of philosophy that claims, “The physical universe was never meant to be. Its existence, its creation if you will, resulted from a cosmic “goof” committed by the foolish Creator God (the Demiurge) of the Bible.” 24 As the system developed, Gnosticism came to a point of saying that the God of the Bible will not save a person, but knowing yourself will. 25 While they denied the resurrection of Christ, they acclaimed, “the Gnostic, though … divine, must also become divine by the event of saving gnosis … self-knowledge.” 26

When we compare this to Scientology, we see an amazing parallel, for as we have seen above they say, “There was no Christ.” 27 Moreover, their organization is built upon knowing oneself. This is seen in their practice of what they refer to as auditing (from the Latin word “audire” meaning “to listen”). This is a central practice of the Scientology religion where an auditor (a counselor) uses a device (electropsychometer, or “E-Meter” 28 ), which assists the auditor to locate areas of spiritual travail in the person’s life and past. Amazingly, Peter Jones points out, that in the techniques for knowing one’s self, in Gnostic documents discovered at Nag Hammadi, 29 that, “In Zostrianos the author sets out a program that others are to follow, including ascetic practices and meditation to reduce “chaos in the mind,” and by which he receives a first vision of the divine presence.” 30 Scientology is the re-birth of a form of Gnosticism.

For example, in Advance!, 31 Scientology’s former magazine, issue 93 has an article entitled, “The Surprising Christian Tradition of Reincarnation,” which relies on Gnostic writings such as the Pistis Sophia (a surviving Gnostic writing) to support its viewpoint. Moreover, when L. Ron Hubbard died in 1986, it was announced that he had left this MEST32 universe. Why? To continue his work and research. In other words, he had obtained the gnosis needed to break the bonds to this material illusory plane and travel to other worlds or dimensions at will. 33

Another obvious connection to Gnosticism is in the upper level of training known as Operating Thetan III. 34 At this level, the Scientologist is first taught that many of his problems are caused by other souls attached to his soul. However, salvation may be had, as these souls may be detached and sent on their way through the training courses — which you pay for. However, these “discoveries” of Hubbard actually were taught, in Gnosticism, as far back as 300 AD:

For many spirits dwell in it [the body] and do not permit it to be pure; each of them brings to fruition its own works, and they treat it abusively by means of unseemly desires. To me it seems that the heart suffers in much the same way as an inn: for it has holes and trenches dug in it and is often filled with filth by men who live there licentiously and have no regard for the place because it belongs to another. 35

Clearly, there is a link between Gnosticism and Scientology. So, why is this so important? Why is this ancestry issue of such keen interest? Why is Gnosticism so bad?

The Bible warns us against such a false doctrine! Paul states in 1 Timothy 6:20-21

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you. [emphasis mine]

Paul warns Timothy about “godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge.” The word translated “knowledge” is the Greek gnosis. As we have already discovered it means, “to know,” and in addition, it forms the root of the word Gnosticism. It is probable, that Paul refers to Gnosticism here, since both of his letters to Timothy contain warnings against false teachers bringing in foreign concepts that were undermining the faith of church members. 36

Gnosticism is confronted again and again in the Scripture. Concerning 1 Corinthians 15:55, where Paul states, “But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come,” he is addressing those in Corinth who denied the resurrection. These did so primarily because of the influence of Gnostic philosophy, which considered the body to be inherently evil and only the spirit to be good. The early church Fathers reported that Simon (Acts 8:9-11) was one of the founders of Gnosticism. One of my dearly departed seminary professors, Harold O. J. Brown, comments and says:

The first two teachers to propagate [G]nostic ideas within Christian circles were Simon and his successor Menander. Unlike later and more famous representatives of Gnosticism, both Simon and Menander claimed divinity for themselves. According to Acts 8:9—11, Simon called himself the “great power of God.” The Greek term he used, dunamis, was used by later, more orthodox theologians in reference to both the Son and the Holy Spirit. … Justin Martyr also reports Simon’s messianic claim. 37

Later in church history:

“Toward the end of the second century,” says Gasque, “Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul, wrote five monumental books against the [G]nostic heresies of his area, together with a book entitled Proof of the Apostolic Preaching.… His theology was grounded in the Bible and the church’s doctrines and helped provide a steadying, positive influence in the church. He wrote of the cosmic implications of the work of Christ and God’s plan in history, and paved the way for the later Christian interpretations of history by writers such as Augustine. 38

Gnosticism was seen as a direct attack on the gospel of Jesus Christ both in Scripture and in redemptive history. It was considered as “another gospel” (Gal 1:6-8) and as such was spoken against so it could be silenced (Tit 1:11). Thus, as one can see, one is cruising for a bruising — an eternal bruising, if they follow this cult.

However, the ancestry of Scientology does not stop here. It also has roots in what is now called Satanism.

Satanism

As a former homicide detective, I studied the occult and more specifically Satanism. 39 Several murders, rapes and kidnapping are done and/or attempted in the identity of occults and their leaders. Thus, knowledge of the occult was a necessary tool in my investigative chest. I had to know my communities enemy, just as the church today needs to know their enemies. As time progressed, I attended seminars, read books, taught, and was considered an expert court witness in the area from a criminal behavior standpoint.

Alister Crowley (1875-1947) is a prominent name in the occult. He was reared in the Plymouth Brethren, but something went amiss (1 John 2:19). Crowley had been introduced to magic in a book by A. E. Waite. His Cabalistic studies led him in 1898 to the OGD (a secret society). His alias is “The Beast 666.” He was a leading Satanist and founded the OTO — Ordo Templi Orientis, where he and his followers promoted sexual magick. 40

Jack Parsons was a noted follower of Crowley. He led a Pasadena based occult group; Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientischapter in Los Angeles (Church of Thelma, even if you do not read any other footnote read this one). 41 L. Ron Hubbard was an active member in this group for several months, and first met his second wife there — Jack Parson’s girlfriend, Sara Northrup. 42

L. Ron Hubbard developed his MEST (footnote 29) doctrine. In part, it is a development from his O.T.O. indoctrination. Later, in a series of lectures given in 1952, Hubbard discusses occult magic of the middle ages and he recommends a book entitled, The Master Therion. 43 He states, “it’s fascinating work in itself, and that it is a work written by Aleister Crowley, the late Aleister Crowley, my very good friend.” 44 Later Dianetics’45 Time Track, 46 is declared a brain child of Hubbard — or is it? In it, every incident in a person’s life is chronologically recorded in full in the mind. It is quite similar to Crowley’s Magical Memory. The Magical Memory is developed over time until “memories of childhood reawaken.” 47 The similarity between the Dianetics’, ime Track and Crowley’s, Magical Memory is that they both can recall: (1) every past incident in a person’s life, (2) incidents from past lives, and (3) they both must be developed by certain techniques in order to make use of them. From cult to cult and methodology to methodology, Hubbard built a false religion.

Moreover, both Hubbard and Crowley consider it important to have the person recall his or her birth. Crowley states, “Having allowed the mind to return for some hundred times to the hour of birth, it should be encouraged to endeavor to penetrate beyond that period.” 48 We see a parallel in Hubbard’s Dianetics saying, “After twenty runs through birth, the patient experienced a recession of all somatics and ‘unconsciousness’ and aberrative content” …. “thus there was no inhibition about looking earlier than birth for what Dianetics had begun to call basic-basic.” 49

However, his connection to Satanism and the occult is even closer than mere association or techniques. In a venomous diatribe against Christianity, Hubbard was discussing how Christianity had come about by: (1) selling immortality, (2) how the mercy of God became costly, and (3) how the original spiritual ideas had degenerated to the material plane to the point where religious freedom is a sham. In part, he may have been correct in some of his statements considering the selling indulgences by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. However, instead of warning against this error from a biblical perspective he rolls over in his grave of philosophy and states:

If you started to worship Lucifer, if you started to worship any of the various gods. One fellow, Aleister Crowley, picked up a level of religious worship which is very interesting. Oh boy! The press played hockey with his head for his whole lifetime. The Great Beast-666. He just had another level of religious worship. Yes sir! You are free to worship everything under the Constitution so long as it’s Christian. 50

According to L. Ron Hubbard’s own son, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.:

He [L. Ron Hubbard] got hold of the book by Alistair Crowley called The Book of the Law. He was very interested in…the creation of what some people call the Moon Child. It was basically an attempt to create an immaculate conception — except by Satan rather than by God. Another important idea was the creation of what they call embryo implants — of getting a satanic or demonic spirit to inhabit the body of a fetus. This would come about as a result of black-magic rituals, which included the use of hypnosis, drugs, and other dangerous and destructive practices. One of the important things was to destroy the evidence if you failed at this immaculate conception. That’s how my father became obsessed with abortions. 51

The liberal Brandon as we saw at the beginning of this article describes a cult as a, “religious group which differs significantly in one or more respects as to the belief or practice from those religious groups are regarded as the normative expressions of religion in our total culture.” Is there any doubt that this is a cult? Is there any doubt where this cult is from? Is there any doubt where the members of this cult are cruising too? Don’t walk away from this cult — RUN!

May we bow in prayer for those that are captive in this cult. Paul states:

2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Salvation is by grace alone. God must regenerate individuals and give them “his way, his life, and his truth” (John 14:6). May God give us all the ability to understand our own, “Heart Corruptions:” 52

May we be active in our apologetics against this cult.

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Scientology and the Illuminati: Cult or Fiction, You Decide; What Every Person Should Know About These Dangerous Cults

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Global Mission – Narconon

narconon.org.uk

https://www.narconon.org.uk › about-narconon

NARCONON’S MISSION is to provide an effective path for rehabilitation from drug abuse and to assist society in preventing the scourge of drugs worldwide.

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A Global Success Story

Today, Narconon drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers operate in more than 20 nations—a global network of effective rehabilitation centers with one shared purpose—to free people from the grip of addiction. For good.

Narconon uses unique rehabilitation technology that gets to the problem at its source—and provides a path for long-term success.

For nearly 50 years, Narconon has saved those who were thought lost to substance abuse forever. Week by week. Year by year. Our success is measured in our ever-growing number of graduates who now lead new lives free from drugs.

Here we have provided as much information as possible. There is no substitute for talking to a real person who can answer your specific questions regarding your specific circumstances.

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Narconon and Scientology Organisations Last updated 22 November 2002

Contents > Narconon and Scientology > Organisations

LINK:  https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Narconon/organisations.htm

Is Narconon controlled by the Church of Scientology? This question has raised more controversy than almost any other concerning Narconon. There can be no real doubt that Narconon is a vigorous promoter of Scientology beliefs; its practices are so suffused by Scientology doctrines that they are better described as actually being Scientology, rather a derivation or adaptation. (See the Doctrines page for a detailed analysis.) But is Narconon actually a front for the Church of Scientology rather than merely being a fellow traveler?

The definitive answer is that Narconon is, in fact, an official Church programme. In 1993, the Church of Scientology International (CSI) and the United States Internal Revenue Service struck an agreement, under which the Church gained tax exemption for itself and its subsidiaries and in return paid $12.5m to cover the church’s payroll, income and estate-tax bills for an undisclosed number of years prior to 1993, as well as discontinuing numerous lawsuits. The terms of the agreement did not become public until four years later, when they were leaked to the Wall Street Journal.

According to the Form 1023 Statement which CSI had to submit to the IRS prior to the agreement, Narconon forms part of CSI’s “social betterment program”:

Though Mr. Hubbard is best known for founding the religion of Scientology, he also authored very effective technologies for handling society’s ills and bettering the lot of mankind as a whole. Over time these technologies have developed into four general social-betterment programs, each addressing a specific area of current social concern: Narconon, a drug rehabilitation program; …

For many years CSI and other churches of Scientology have conducted highly-successful social reform programs based on Mr. Hubbard’s technologies. They conducted these programs either directly or in close conjunction with charitable and educational organizations formed to help them bring Mr. Hubbard’s technologies to the secular world.

The bulk of CSI’s social betterment program is carried out under the supervision and direction of Association for Better Living and Education … ABLE accomplishes its goals primarily by providing technical and financial assistance and general promotional support to the international social-betterment organizations that work in ABLE’s four areas of concern: Narconon International (drug rehabilitation) …
[Church of Scientology International Exemption Application Form 1023 Attached Statement, 1993]

When the agreement itself was drafted, CSI accepted responsibility for Narconon’s tax status; the IRS and CSI defined it in the closing agreement as one of a number of “Scientology-related entities”:

The social benefit and other public benefit entities discussed at pages 1-28 through 1-42 of the June [1992] submission [by CSI] along with all subsidiaries, subordinate chapters, subordinate organizations, or sublicensees thereof (e.g., organizations that are permitted to use particular names, copyrights, service marks, and/or technologies) are Scientology-related entities. Thus, for example, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice, Scientology Defense Fund Trust, Association for the Better Living and Education, Applied Scholastics Incorporated, Narconon International, The Way to Happiness Foundation, and the Foundation for Religious Freedom are Scientology-related entities.
[“Closing agreement on final determination covering specific matters”, U.S. Internal Revenue Service, 1 October 1993]

Shortly afterwards, CSI published a “Tax Compliance Manual” issued to Scientology missions and churches across the United States to instruct Scientologists on the requirements of the agreement with the IRS. It includes a passage on Narconon and the other “social betterment” organisations:

The SCIENTOLOGY charitable and educational institutions that the Internal Revenue Service has recognized as tax-exempt include Association for Better Living and Education, Narconon and Applied Scholastics and all Narconon centers and qualified schools that operate under the authority of Narconon and Applied Scholastics, The Way to Happiness Foundation, as well as the newly formed Hubbard College of Administration and its subordinate colleges. Narconon, Applied Scholastics and Hubbard College of Administration each have the authority to extend tax-exempt status to newly formed subordinate organizations.
[Tax Compliance Manual, Church of Scientology International, 1993]

Narconon and the Church of Scientology frequently play a verbal sleight of hand over the nature of this relationship: “Scientology” is often equated with “the Church of Scientology”. Hence, Narconon insists that it is “corporately separate and distinct from the Church of Scientology” [Clark Carr, President of Narconon International, letter to Carroll Star News, 7 June 2002] and the Church says that “we don’t have an organizational link [with Narconon]” [Graeme Wilson, Director of Special Affairs, Church of Scientology UK, quoted in Finchley Advertiser, 14 January 1993]. But the Church’s own public documents demonstrate that “Scientology” means far more than just the Church. Scientology’s trademarks are controlled and enforced by a separate corporation, the Religious Technology Center (RTC); its copyrights are held by another corporation, the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST); its publications are issued by yet another corporation, Bridge Publications – and so on. Few people, including the Scientologists, would deny that RTC and CST are part of Scientology. This classification was recognised in the 1993 agreement with the IRS, when the closing agreement stated that Narconon was one of a number of “Scientology-related entities” and the Tax Compliance Manual calls it a “Scientology charitable and educational institution”. In short, Narconon is demonstrably part of the wider Scientology movement.

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The “Bridge to the Bridge”

The whole agonized future of this planet, every man, woman and child on it, and your own destiny for the next endless trillions of years depend on what you do here and now with and in Scientology.
[Hubbard, “Keeping Scientology Working”]

The ideological relationship between Narconon and Scientology highlights the closeness of the relationship. The Church of Scientology sees itself as being responsible for nothing less than the future of the entire planet. As such, “taking responsibility” is a central theme of Scientology doctrine. L. Ron Hubbard came to the conclusion that Scientology’s long-range goal – “clearing the planet”, could not be achieved unless certain conditions were met first, such as ridding the world of such menaces as psychiatrists, drugs and income tax. As the Church puts it,

Reducing criminality and drug abuse, community cleanup and charitable contributions – when one considers the larger purpose of Scientology, it is no accident that members of the Church have chosen to focus their social betterment programs on these areas. For although the primary emphasis of Scientology remains on bettering the individual, on bringing him to greater heights of spiritual awareness, the long-range aim has always been the same – a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights.
[“Scientology in the Community – The Larger Purpose” – <http://www.scientologytoday.org/corp/pg0438.htm>]

This same long-range aim is shared, word for word, by Narconon. Hubbard saw drug abuse and toxic contamination as a particularly vexing problem, due to its combination of scale – just about everyone on the planet is now exposed to a variety of artificial toxins – and its supposedly harmful spiritual effects, whereby even an aspirin was capable of causing a form of psychosis. He wrote:

The planet has hit a barrier which prevents any widespread social progress — drugs and other biochemical substances.

These can put people into a condition which not only prohibits and destroys physical health but which can prevent any stable advancement in mental or spiritual well-being.
[Hubbard, “The Purification Program” – <http://drugrehab.lronhubbard.org/page22.htm>]

By “widespread social progress” Hubbard meant Scientology, the “Bridge to Total Freedom”; and the only way to “stable advancement in mental or spiritual well-being”, inevitably, was Scientology. Scientologists are deemed unable to achieve “case gain” (that is, spiritual improvement) unless they have first done the Purification Rundown, effectively making it a compulsory process for Scientologists. Likewise, for society as a whole, it is unable to make progress unless it relieves itself of the harmful spiritual effects of drugs and toxins. As a result, Scientology’s goal of creating “a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war” is unachievable without tackling the drugs problem. The establishment of Narconon is thus central to Scientology’s goal of changing the world and “putting in standard tech across the planet”. As one issue of the magazine of Scientology’s Social Coordination bureau put it, Scientologists must “HELP SECURE A BETTER FUTURE FOR THE PLANET AND THE ONES YOU LOVE … A society where LRH tech is accepted and widely used is safe, sane and easy to live in.” [“LRH’s Technology Used in Society”, Inroads – The Social Coordination International Newsletter, issue 3, 1984]

The “social reform” groups have been described as “the bridge to the Bridge” the means by which Scientology’s “technology” can be brought to society as a whole. Narconon’s own newsletter coins this phrase and declares:

NARCONON is freeing people from crime and drug abuse with standard tech, and starting them up RON’s bridge to total freedom. WHO CAN YOU START ACROSS THAT BRIDGE?
[Narconon News, vol 6 issue 3]

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Narconon and the Guardian’s Office

To see how the organisational relationship between Narconon and Scientology has developed, it is worth looking at how Narconon got started. It originated in Arizona State Prison in 1966 as the brainchild of a convict named William Benitez, who had been incarcerated in December 1964 on drugs charges. Benitez himself describes, on the website of Narconon International, how he got the idea:

After arriving at prison, a friend of mine gave me some reading material to keep me occupied while I was in the Orientation Cellblock pending transfer to general population. Among the material was an old, tattered book, Fundamentals of Thought, by L. Ron Hubbard. I had heard of his writings when I previously served a ten-year sentence at Arizona State Prison, but had never read them. I had always been an avid reader of books dealing with human behavior. Yet, this small book impressed me more than anything else I had ever read before. I read it over and over and then purchased additional books by Mr. Hubbard and studied them very carefully during the following year, even into the late hours of the night in my cell. …

What impressed me the most about [Hubbard’s] materials was that they concentrated not only on identifying abilities, but also on methods (practical exercises) by which to develop them. I realized that drug addiction was nothing more than a ‘disability’, resulting when a person ceases to use abilities essential to constructive survival.

I found that if a person rehabilitated and applied certain abilities, that person could persevere toward goals set, confront life, isolate problems and resolve them, communicate with life, be responsible and set ethical standards, and function within the band of certainty. …

[After starting the program] I then wrote to Mr. Hubbard about Narconon. He and his organizations supported our program by donating books, tapes and course materials. We received hundreds of letters from throughout the world validating our efforts to make drug addiction and criminal or illegal behavior a thing of the past in our lives.

Mr. Benitez completed his prison term and was released in October 1967. He moved to California to expand the Narconon organization and to make it available to persons in need. Mr. Hubbard and his organizations supported the effort, resulting in worldwide expansion.
[“About William Benitez” – <http://www.narconon.org/about_benitez.htm>]

Narconon and the Church of Scientology refer to Narconon being incorporated “by William Benitez on May 20, 1970.” [Kate Wickstrom, letter to Battle Creek Enquirer, 26 July 2002] Its incorporation was supposedly performed “to formalize what was then a loose, grassroots movement” [Church of Scientology International Exemption Application Form 1023 Attached Statement, 1993]. In fact, there was rather more to its incorporation than is generally admitted. What neither the Church of Scientology nor Narconon mention in their literature is that two other individuals were co-incorporators: Henning Heldt and Arthur “Arte” Maren. Their involvement is highly significant, as they were senior members of the Guardian’s Office of the Church of Scientology. A decade later, Heldt was in prison along with L. Ron Hubbard’s wife and eleven other Guardian’s Office staff, Maren and Hubbard himself were named as “unindicted co-conspirators” and the Guardian’s Office was exposed as the instigator of a massive international campaign of espionage and intimidation aimed at anyone who Scientology saw as a threat: governments, newspapers, businesses, individuals. It was eventually disbanded in 1982 after losing a power struggle with the present management of the Church of Scientology.

The Guardian’s Office had a wide range of responsibilities in dealing with the Church’s external affairs. It had six Bureaus: Legal, Public Relations, Information (initially called Intelligence), Social Coordination, Service (for GO staff training and auditing), and Finance. Each was numbered, from 1 to 6. As far as Narconon was concerned, Social Coordination – also referred to as SoCo, Bureau 6 or B6 – was the most significant, as it was responsible for liaising with Narconon and other “social reform” organisations. One of its Presidents, Frank Zurn (whose wife Laurie is a Narconon International corporate officer and Vice President of ABLE, SoCo’s present-day equivalent), explained SoCo’s purpose:

The dissemination and delivery of Ron’s technology divides into broad sectors. Social Coordination International is the organization that has been entrusted with reversing the decay of society and using Ron’s technology to revitalize the fields of education, drug rehabilitation, criminal rehabilitation, and society’s morals through The Way to Happiness campaign.
[Impact magazine issue 10 (1987) p.22]

Zurn specifically named Narconon and two educational programmes as being part of the campaign to “disseminate and deliver” Hubbard’s doctrines. In a 1975 policy letter, Hubbard described the responsibilities of the Social Coordination Bureau in some detail:

[F]requently PR [i.e. Guardian’s Office Bureau 3] gets into a situation whereby it creates an entity or group or organization to bring about some change of value within the community or to handle some outstanding social injustice. In many cases the reform or action is brought to a successful conclusion; however, in many instances, the action to be effected is one which will require more time and effort. In expending such time and effort, PR to keep ahead finds itself in the situation of having and running a group or organization within its own bureau; therefore, PR must, when this occurs, realize that it is now in the situation of managing and administrating an established entity which is likely to continue and, therefore, should fully turn over the terminals [staff], lines and organization of same to the Social Coordination Bureau which is the Guardian Bureau which properly acts as a management unit for such entities, activities, groups and organizations.
[Hubbard, “PR and Social Coordination Bureau – Separation of Functions”, Board Policy Letter of 22 July 1975]

When the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the Guardian’s Office in 1977, in pursuit of the crimes which led eventually to the conviction of the GO’s senior staff, it seized a huge quantity of confidential documents which revealed how the GO saw its relationship with Narconon. The papers show that Narconon was, in Scientology’s own words, a “front group”. Even within the confines of the Church of Scientology, this knowledge was closely guarded although it was reportedly fairly common informal knowledge amongst the rank and file. To maintain operational security, the GO used a variety of codes to obscure potentially damaging information. This included a variety of incriminating information that could be legally or publicly damaging. A “Coding Hat” was produced to instruct staff in the areas of sensitivity that were to be subjected to coding. As well as a general GO-wide instruction, each individual bureau of the GO was required to encode information in its own specific area of responsibility. Hence Bureau 6, also known as B6 or Social Coordination, which was responsible for “social reform groups” such as Narconon, was given a list of “SC general headings for data needing coding”. This included the names of “B6 groups” – that is, organisations covertly run by the Church of Scientology:

1. Incriminating activities such as lobbying where this is prohibited in non profit corporations.

2. Anything that we do not want connected to LRH [L. Ron Hubbard] or CSG [Controller Staff Guardian – i.e. Mary Sue Hubbard]. This would include #1 above, and is handled by coding their names.

3. Words or actions that would tend to dispute the fact that the C of S’s motives are humanitarian; i.e. harass, eradicate, destroy, cave in, third party.

4. Anything that gives specific and actual evidence that Scientology is in legal control of B6 type groups. These are groups that are separate legal entities to the C of S.

a. This will include a situation where a flap has occurred due to mishandling of management causing a situation where it appears we are in legal control of a group.

4 addition: I have listed below the present time B6 groups tha [sic] fall into this category.

These groups are:

1. Applied Scholastics
2. Narconon
3. Apple Schools
4. Expansion Consultants
5. Childbirth Education Center (new one)
6. Association for Scientologists for Reform

[“SC general headings for data needing coding“]

Hubbard himself also referred to Narconon being controlled by the GO. In an August 1972 minute, he praised the “very remarkable results” that Narconon was achieving:

The incomparable Guardians Office has been running the Narconon (Drugs-no!) Program over the world.

This program has a steady gradual increase of International support and is going very smoothly in the competent hands of Guardian personnel.

The GO should not hide its light under a basket – if it could.

Narconon is the ONLY successful drug rehabilitation program on the planet. It is being recognized as such.
[Hubbard, “Narconon”, Flag Bureaux Data Letter 220, 29 August 1972]

Remarkably, the GO’s activities appear to have included attacking other drug rehab groups. One of the documents seized by the FBI in 1977 defines the end products of “B1 activities” (B1 being the Intelligence bureau of the GO), including the neutralisation or destruction of “enemy groups” including “rival drug rehab group[s]” as well as newspaper and publishing companies and dissident Scientologists. [“Enemy File“, date unknown]

This documentary evidence is also strongly borne out by the testimony of individuals who were involved with Narconon during the 1970s. After Narconon was formally incorporated by Benitez, Maren and Heldt in May 1970, additional programmes were set up in the central Californian towns of Vacaville and Watsonville. The one in Vacaville was originally established in 1969 in the California Medical Facility (a prison) as a Scientology group, which had been set up after a prisoner had written to the Scientology Mission in the nearby town of Davis requested lessons in Scientology. It was supervised by a local staff member, Robert Vaughn Young. In 1971, Young, by now a member of the San Francisco Guardian’s Office, was instructed by Arte Maren – at the time the Deputy Guardian for Public Relations – that the Vacaville Scientology group was to be relabeled a Narconon group. Young was well aware of Narconon’s status as a “B6 group” and saw no point in replacing an overt Scientology presence with a covert one:

I was very familiar with Narconon. In my training in Los Angeles at the national offices of the Guardian’s Office, I had read about Narconon and how it had started in an Arizona prison and how we had taken it over to run it from the Guardian’s Office and were trying to get other Narconon groups started. We had instructions to not make the link to the Church of Scientology known even though we were given [sic – should be giving] them orders on what to do. In short, the Narconon groups were fully controlled by the Church of Scientology as a means of entering the prisons under a guise.

I told Maren that it didn’t make sense to convert a Scientology program to a Narconon program since the purpose of the Narconon program was to secretly be Scientology and I already had Scientology in the prison. Maren said he needed to be able to name more Narconon programs and, besides, he insisted, it was in name only. He wanted my group to have the Narconon name and I could do with it whatever I wanted to do. Nothing else had to change, he said.
[Affidavit of Robert Vaughn Young, 7 February 1995]

At about the same time, a retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel named Mark Jones, who had become a Scientologist, was selected as Narconon International’s first Director. He was something of a minor celebrity in the Church’s eyes, having had a distinguished military career and having the major advantage of managerial experience in challenging environments. He described later how his involvement came about:

I was approached by Arthur Maren who was the Assistant Guardian for Public Relations in the United States branch of the Guardian’s Office of the Church of Scientology. Maren asked if I was willing to set up a Narconon office and establish programs under the direction of the Guardian Office. At this time, one Narconon program existed in the Arizona State Penitentiary and one was being established in the Cal. State Penitentiary at Vacaville by a member of the San Francisco Scientology Guardian Office [i.e. Robert Vaughn Young]. I agreed to do this and undertook to make Narconon an international drug rehabilitation agency on behalf of the Church of Scientology.
[Declaration of Mark Jones, 10 February 1995]

At the end of 1970, the Deputy Guardian U.S. sent a memorandum on “U.S. Guardian Office Wins in 1970” to L. Ron and Mary Sue Hubbard, describing it as having been “a year of expansion in scope and operation for our office”. There was no attempt to pretend that Narconon activities in California were separate from those of the Church of Scientology. Narconon appeared in four separate “wins”:

BUREAU 3 – LEGAL

53. Segment of news cast on KABC TV on Narconon broadcast as a retraction for mention of Scientology in a program on witchcraft.

BUREAU 7 – PUBLIC RELATIONS

128. Narconon expanded greatly this year. In addition to the group at Arizona State Prison, two new programs were established, one at California Rehabilitation Center [in Watsonville] and the other at Vacaville Medical Facility.

129. A successful Narconon “To the Walls” Congress was held inside Arizona State Prison in March.

160. KABC TV [in Los Angeles] did entheta [critical] mention of Scientology on their Witchcraft series. PRO [Public Relations Officer] went down immediately and caved them in and Legal and PRO went to work. The result was equal time on their station for Narconon.
[“US Guardian Office Wins in 1970”, 30 December 1970. Something similar to item 160 still occurs today; criticism of Scientology is often met by official rebuttals citing the “250,000 lives saved” by the Church’s drug rehabilitation programmes.]

This pattern of direct management by the Church continued at least for the rest of the 1970s, although it was (and is still) denied by the Church and Narconon. Many of the other documents seized by the FBI include references to Narconon. In a Guardian Office logbook for early 1976, Barbara Cole asked another office: “Has Narconon U.S. established itself as an admin unit functioning w/out bypass [direct management] from your bureau?” The same logbook also included criticism of a church official who visited a Narconon operation in Palo Alto, CA without settling its debt problems. Col Jones testified to the close involvement of Church officials:

Throughout my period as director of Narconon, I reported to the Guardian’s Office. Meetings were held at regular intervals at which the executives of the Guardian’s Office determined the affairs of Narconon. All Narconon activities including the disposition of Narconon finances were approved by the Church of Scientology Assistant Guardian for Public Relations and the Assistant Guardian for Finance, Henning Heldt. From the time I became involved until I ultimately resigned, the Guardian Office controlled all directorships of Narconon, although Narconon was held out to be independent of the Church of Scientology.

In or about 1973, I was requested to travel to England by the Guardian’s Office to assist the Deputy Guardian for Public Relations WW [World Wide], David Gaiman, for the Church of Scientology, in recruiting and training personnel to help establish Narconon programs in Europe. I went to Europe and assisted in promoting and establishing programs in Europe.
[Declaration of Mark Jones, 10 February 1995]

Maren’s controlling role is illustrated by his title during the 1970s of “Narconon Co-Ordinator” [letter from David Gaiman to Paulette Cooper, reproduced in Cooper, The Scandal of Scientology, 1976]. For his part, Col Jones also retained a close connection with the Church; he was repeatedly given commendations and rewards by the Church for his work on Narconon. In June 1972, L. Ron Hubbard himself publicly honoured Col Jones in an “LRH Executive Directive”, to which David Gaiman added his own annotated congratulations, which declared that “Mark Jones is awarded his next training level, Class IX, for the excellent work he has done on the Narconon Programme” [Hubbard, LRH ED 8 Int, 2 June 1972]. This promoted Col Jones to the rank of “Hubbard Advanced Technical Specialist”. Just over ten years later, Col. Jones was given another public commendation for his Narconon work by the Church of Scientology of California’s United States Guardian Office (USGO):

FOR OUTSTANDING SUPPORT OF THE GUARDIAN OFFICE AND VALUABLE BACK UP OF ORG DELIVERY ON AN INTERNATIONAL BASIS.

THE MATERIAL THIS CELEBRITY PROVIDED IS GREATLY ASSISTING IN BRINGING ABOUT WIDESPREAD ACCEPTANCES OF SCIENTOLOGY AND OVERWHELMING PUBLIC POPULARITY OF THE TECHNOLOGY OF L. RON HUBBARD.

THE SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED VERY MUCH. THANK YOU,

TOM WHITTLE,
USGO MISSIONAIRE

[Commendation issued by Church of Scientology of California, 18 August 1982]

This must have been one of the last commendations issued by the United States Guardian Office, as the whole organisation was wound up shortly afterwards. In the wake of the 1977 FBI raids and subsequent criminal convictions of the GO’s leadership, a power struggle for control of the Church of Scientology had broken out between the discredited GO high command and the Sea Organisation (Sea Org for short), an élite subgroup of fanatically committed Scientologists. The Sea Org was, in effect, Hubbard’s personal praetorian guard: drawn from the most loyal and ideologically “pure” Scientologists, often young second-generation Scientologists, it eventually became the only part of the Church which Hubbard trusted. Its leadership used that trust and support to destroy the Guardian’s Office and exile its senior staff, including Mary Sue Hubbard, although most were quietly let back into the Church after a suitable period of disgrace. The only part of the Guardian’s Office to survive its demise more or less intact was the Social Coordination Bureau, split off into a separate unit called Social Coordination International. This survived into the late 1980s and, in a revised form, is a crucial part of today’s Scientology management structure.

---

Narconon and the Scientology Management Structure

“Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
“To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes.

[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Silver Blaze, 1894]

In Scientology’s equivalent of the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, the curious incident was that the dog did something it wasn’t supposed to do. In the secret agreement in 1993 between the Church of Scientology International (CSI) and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, CSI negotiated tax exemption for itself and a variety of other “Scientology-related entities”, including Narconon and the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE), the body which licenses Narconon. It also committed itself to policing and implementing the terms of the agreement under the aegis of the “Church Tax Compliance Committee”. Yet CSI is supposedly organisationally separate from ABLE and Narconon, with no management responsibilities for either corporation. It does not take the likes of Sherlock Holmes to spot that there is something wrong here, when an organisation claimed to be separate in public is revealed in secret negotiations as actually been a subordinate.

According to the public statements of Narconon, ABLE and CSI, the relationship is something like this:

The four “social betterment” organisations – Narconon, Criminon, Applied Scholastics and The Way To Happiness Foundation – are subordinate to ABLE, which licenses trademarks and copyrighted material and supervises the correct implementation of the social reform “technologies”. Off to each side, but separately incorporated and outside of the management and licensing structure, are the Church of Scientology International (and its subordinate churches) and the International Association of Scientologists. Each provide support and funding to ABLE and its subordinates. The relationship is presented as being strictly charitable, not managerial.

However, a close examination of the IRS agreement and the internal documents of both ABLE and CSI show a radically different picture. From these, it is possible to piece together a flowchart showing the organisational relationships between Narconon, ABLE and the rest of Scientology’s byzantine corporate structure. Narconon is revealed as being very definitely a part of the Scientology corporate empire:

This is, necessarily, a heavily simplified version of a much bigger whole. Lines of management are represented as solid black lines, with dashed yellow lines indicating the known and probable contractual relationships. The colours of the different elements indicate distinct corporations, with the Church of Scientology itself being the yellow component. Note that this bears out the carefully-worded disclaimer that Narconon is “corporately separate and distinct from the Church of Scientology” [Clark Carr, letter to Carroll Star News, 7 June 2002]. Likewise, it also supports the statement by the Religious Technology Center that “we have never had a licensing agreement with [Narconon] or any secular group”. [Warren L. McShane, quoted in “Scientology reaches into schools through Narconon“, Boston Herald, 3 March 1998] Nor would it, since the RTC licenses the Scientology trademarks, not “secular” ones. The key to the puzzle is that Narconon is independent of the Church of Scientology, but is nonetheless still a part of the Scientology conglomerate.

• Narconon International and local Narconons

Taking the organisation chart above stage by stage from the ground up, the bottom level is the various “social reform” organisations and their sub-units. In the case of Narconon, individual Narconon organisations are at the bottom level; they are effectively franchises (in fact, one can buy “Narconon Program Starter Kits” with all that is necessary to get a Narconon programme off the ground [ABLE Bookstore – <http://www.able.org/bookstore.html#narconon>]). The Church of Scientology International’s Form 1023 “Application for Recognition of Exemption”, submitted to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service in 1993, explains the relationship between Narconon International and local Narconons:

Narconon International was formed in 1970 to formalize what was then a loose, grassroots movement, to help establish Narconon programs throughout the world, and to provide local centers the same sort of guidance and technical assistance and support that ABLE provides it. Narconon International also permits local centers to use the name Narconon. In exchange, local centers support Narconon International’s program by providing it with ten percent of the funds they receive in connection with their Narconon activities.
[Church of Scientology International Exemption Application Form 1023 Attached Statement, 1993]

Each organisation pays licensing fees to its parent, Narconon International, based in Los Angeles, from which it purchases the various books and literature used in the programme (and also, according to some reports, the vitamin supplements used in the “detoxification” stage of the programme). It also provides training via the international training centre at Narconon Arrowhead [ABLE Bookstore – <http://www.able.org/book_oasnc.html>]. In addition, 10% of income from each local Narconon organisation is remitted to Narconon International. This is a standard Scientology franchise arrangement, each element of which is precisely replicated in the relationship between Narconon International and its franchises:

The Church derived income from four sources: (1) auditing and training; (2) sales of Scientology literature, recordings and E-meters; (3) franchise operations; and (4) management services. Franchise operators were required to remit ten percent of gross income to the Church.
[Church of Scientology of California v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, US Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, case no. 85-7324, decided 28 July 1987 – <http://www.xenu.net/archive/CourtFiles/occf113.html>]

• The Association for Better Living and Education

Above Narconon is the Association for Better Living and Education. According to ABLE’s website, it is a purely secular organisation. However, it is in fact none other than the old Guardian’s Office Social Coordination Bureau, converted into a separate corporation in 1988. As the first issue of its newsletter told Scientologists,

You may have heard some news about ABLE INTERNATIONAL. Formerly our name was Social Coordination.

ABLE’s purpose is “TO CREATE A TOTAL REVOLUTION IN THE FIELDS OF DRUGS, CRIME AND EDUCATION BY PUSHING LRH™ TECH INTO WIDE, WIDE USE.”

We will be doing this by promoting the incredible services and results of NARCONON™, APPLIED SCHOLASTICS™, CRIMINON™ and THE WAY TO HAPPINESS FOUNDATION.
[ABLE WINS, issue 1, 1988]

Scientology’s relationship with ABLE is explained in the CSI Form 1023:

For many years CSI and other churches of Scientology have conducted highly-successful social reform programs based on Mr. Hubbard’s technologies… The bulk of CSI’s social betterment program is carried out under the supervision and direction of Association for Better Living and Education (“ABLE”), a California nonprofit public benefit corporation formed in November 1988. ABLE’s sole purpose is to improve society through the application of Mr. Hubbard’s social betterment technologies. In general, ABLE promotes, funds and provides assistance to organizations that use L. Ron Hubbard’s technologies in education, in rehabilitating drug abusers and criminals, and in raising public morality in general.

ABLE accomplishes its goals primarily by providing technical and financial assistance and general promotional support to the international social-betterment organizations that work in ABLE’s four areas of concern: Narconon International (drug rehabilitation), Applied Scholastics (education), The Way To Happiness Foundation (public morality) and, though not yet incorporated, Criminon (criminal rehabilitation). These four international organizations, in turn, assist organizations that work in their respective fields at the local level.

ABLE is responsible for ensuring that the programs that use the names referring to Mr. Hubbard’s social-betterment technologies — Narconon, Applied Scholastics, The Way To Happiness and Criminon — meet the high standards of quality with which they have come to be associated. ABLE discharges this responsibility by permitting the international social-betterment organizations and local organizations to use the names subject to ABLE’s ultimate supervision.

ABLE assists social-betterment organizations in other ways. It provides technical assistance when necessary to help them better achieve their program goals. It helps raise funding to support their charitable programs. It promotes their programs throughout society through the printed media as well as radio and television. It also will provide social-betterment organizations the physical facilities necessary to house their charitable and educational programs.
[Church of Scientology International Exemption Application Form 1023 Attached Statement, 1993]

Note that the Form 1023 states explicitly that ABLE is, in effect, acting as the agent for the implementation of Church of Scientology International programmes. It is worth pointing out that the Church’s websites, and ABLE’s, are much more circumspect about the nature of the relationship. What is Scientology? – both the book and the website – states only that “[ABLE’s] activities, while secular in nature, are supported by churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists around the world who volunteer their time and talents.” [“Solutions to a Troubled Society” – <http://www.whatisscientology.org/html/part10/chp31/pg0503.html>] ABLE’s own website only mentions Scientology once, mentioning the fact that L. Ron Hubbard founded it. (Amusingly, ABLE’s website designers do not appear to be aware that ABLE supposedly is independent of Scientology; the main graphic on its survey page, at http://www.able.org.uk/yourview.htm, is tagged “Your view on this Scientology Website” – the entire page has been lifted straight from the official Scientology website at http://www.scientology.org/p_jpg/yourview.htm).

As the IRS was well aware, ABLE is undeniably a part of Scientology. In a booklet issued to Scientologists, “The Command Channels of Scientology” – of which the IRS was clearly aware – ABLE is shown as one of the “various sectors of Scientology”. ABLE is defined as being “the organization responsible for assisting the expansion of the different social reform activities which use the technology of L. Ron Hubbard to handle the major social woes affecting the society”, including drug abuse. The reason that it supports Narconon exclusively is that “the NARCONON Centers headed by NARCONON INTERNATIONAL, dedicated to the eradication of this social disaster with the-application of L. Ron Hubbard’s technology, are the ONLY social reform groups on Earth with a workable technology for terminatedly handling this problem.” [“The Command Channels of Scientology”, Church of Scientology International, 1988, p. 21] ABLE works to

… assist these social reform groups in accomplishing their purposes. It does this through consultation services as well as promotional and public relations campaigns to individuals and organized groups (such as companies, corporations, institutions, departments of local and national governments, etc.) so they realize that the actual solutions to the problems of today’s society exist with the social reform groups and avail themselves of their services. ABLE INTERNATIONAL also provides the social groups with the books and materials they need for their various programs.
[“The Command Channels of Scientology”, Church of Scientology International, 1988, p. 22]

• The Continental Liaison Offices

Immediately above ABLE are the Church of Scientology’s Continental Liaison Offices. From here on upwards, every link in the management chain is part of the Church of Scientology. ABLE’s relationship with the CLOs is virtually symbiotic; as many others have noted, ABLE’s offices are almost always located within Continental Liaison Offices. Compare, for instance, the lists of Scientology Continental Liaison Offices at http://italian.whatisscientology.org/Html/part14/chp42/pg0977.html and ABLE offices at http://community.volunteerministers.org/able.htm – of the 13 ABLE offices listed, 10 are located on Church premises. (ABLE International has its own suite of offices on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles). Sub-offices of the CLO network are known for historical reasons as OTLs (Operation Transport Liaison Offices):

Association for Better Living and Education Expansion Office 118 North Fort Harrison Clearwater, Florida 33755	Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service organization c/o Freewinds Relay Office 118 North Fort Harrison Avenue Clearwater, FL 33755
Association for Better Living and Education Western United States Office 1308 L. Ron Hubbard Way Los Angeles, California 90027	Continental Liaison Office Western United States 1308 L. Ron Hubbard Way Los Angeles, California 90027
Association for Better Living and Education Eastern United States Office 349 West 48th Street New York, New York 10036	Continental Liaison Office Eastern United States 349 W. 48th Street New York, New York 10036
Association for Better Living and Education United Kingdom Office Saint Hill Manor East Grinstead, West Sussex England RH19 4JY	Continental Liaison Office United Kingdom Saint Hill Manor East Grinstead, West Sussex England RH19 4JY
Association for Better Living and Education Hungary Office PO BOX 351. H-1438 Hungary	Operations and Transport Liaison Office Hungary 1438 Budapest PO Box 351 Hungary
Association for Better Living and Education European Office Store Kongensgade 55 1264 Copenhagen K Denmark	Continental Liaison Office Europe Store Kongensgade 55 1264 Copenhagen K Denmark
Association for Better Living and Education African Office 130 Main Street 6th Floor Budget House Johannesburg 2001 Republic of South Africa	Continental Liaison Office Africa 6th Floor, Budget House 130 Main Street Johannesburg 2001 South Africa
Association for Better Living and Education Australia, New Zealand and Oceania Office 201 Castlereagh Street Sydney, New South Wales 2000 Australia	Continental Liaison Office ANZO 201 Castlereagh Street 3rd Floor Sydney, New South Wales 2000 Australia
Association for Better Living and Education Latin American Office Federacion Mexicana de Dianetica, A.C. Pomona # 53 Colonia Roma C.P. 03100 Mexico, D.F.	Federacion Mexicana de Dianetica, A.C. [i.e. Mexican Dianetics Federation] Pomona # 53 Colonia Roma C.P. 03100 Mexico, D.F
Association for Better Living and Education Canada Office 696 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M4Y 2A7	Continental Liaison Office Canada 696 Yonge Street Toronto, Ontario Canada M4Y 2A7

This close match is not accidental. “The Command Channels of Scientology” explains that “In order to perform its duties in the different areas of the world, ABLE INT has continental offices located in CLOs [Continental Liaison Offices], as well as state and regional offices where needed”. This highlights the fictitious nature of the supposed separation between the two organisations. ABLE’s staff are all Scientologists (in fact, members of the elite Sea Organization, as are the staffs of the CLOs); they work in Scientology offices; they implement the plans of Scientology’s International Management; they are in every respect part of Scientology, save for the fact that they are employed by a separate corporation.

In fact, as “Command Channels” demonstrates, ABLE is explicitly part of the CLOs and therefore part of Scientology in managerial if not corporate terms. “Command Channels” states that

The CLOs … include: the FLAG OPERATIONS LIAISON OFFICES (FOLOs), which duplicate the Flag Bureaux and are in charge of Class 4 orgs and Sea Org orgs; the CONTINENTAL OFFICES for SCIENTOLOGY MISSIONS INTERNATIONAL, WORLD INSTITUTE OF SCIENTOLOGY ENTERPRISES, ASSOCIATION FOR BETTER LIVING AND EDUCATION and THE CONTINENTAL PUBS LIAISON OFFICES (which are the Publications Organizations’ representatives in the different continental areas).
[The Command Channels of Scientology, 1988, p. 26]

It goes on to state that:

The CONTINENTAL LIAISON OFFICES (CLOs) coordinate all the Scientology activities in their continental areas. They are ultimately responsible for the expansion of all the Scientology activities and organizations within their geographical area.
[The Command Channels of Scientology, 1988, p. 26]

This coordination takes place through the “Continental Network Coordination Committee headed by CO [Commanding Officer] Continental Liaison Office”, the organisation chart of which features ABLE alongside core parts of Scientology.

The purposes of ABLE are also complementary to those of the CLOs. Compare, for instance, the following:

CLO purposes (from Hubbard, “Purpose of CLOs”, HCO Policy Letter of 22 July 1971)	ABLE purposes (inferred from “Command Channels” and Form 1023 statement)
A. To observe.	A. “ABLE … permit[s] the international social-betterment organizations and local organizations to use the names [Narconon, Applied Scholastics, The Way To Happiness and Criminon] subject to ABLE’s ultimate supervision”. [Form 1023 Statement, Church of Scientology International, 1993]
B. To send observations by users, orgs and the publics to Flag [Command Bureau].	B. ABLE International is one of six Scientology entities on the Flag Network Coordination Committee and reports via that body to the Flag Command Bureaux. [“Command Channels”]
C. To push in Flag Programmes and Projects.	C. “[The CLOs’] function is to get programs and orders executed for the Flag Command Bureaux in their individual orgs and units and to debug where programs and Flag orders won’t go in. CLOs are execution arms for the Flag Command Bureaux.” [“Command Channels”]
D. To FIND the WHY (reasons) that any Flag Programme or Project is not going in in an org or franchise or public and REMEDY THAT WHY so the Flag Programme or Project DOES go in.	D. “This function includes the responsibility of finding why a program is not going in, in a specific org and getting this remedied by taking the necessary actions in accordance with policy.” [“Command Channels”]
E. Keep itself set up and operating on the pattern planned for its establishment by Flag.	E. “The Commanding Officer … ensures the different parts of the CLO [including ABLE] are tactically forwarding strategic planning , executing Flag Command Bureaux orders into the individual orgs and units so as to build up the orgs to and beyond the size of old Saint Hill as well as expand the different sectors and boom Scientology in the continent.” [“Command Channels”]
F. Handle sudden emergencies.	F. (See D.)

• The Flag Command Bureaux

Above the CLOs lies the Flag Command Bureaux, “below the echelon of International Management”:

The Flag Command Bureaux, so named from its origination aboard the Flag Ship Apollo, is the central point of tactical management for all the individual orgs and units of all the sectors of Scientology.

The Flag Command Bureaux is the tactical level of management. It gets International Management plans, evaluations and programs DONE in all the individual orgs and units.

Due to the vast number of orgs, missions and units throughout the world, the Flag Command Bureaux is assisted by Continental Liaison Offices (CLOs) located in the different Continental areas, which it uses to relay and forward actions for each continent.

The Flag Command Bureaux is made up of all the management organizations in charge of the different sectors of Scientology. Each of these is headed by its own Commanding Officer, or an international network head in the case of the international networks. The heads of these different management organizations are answerable to the Commanding Officer of the Flag Command Bureaux, who coordinates their activities and is overall responsible for this echelon of management.
[“The Command Channels of Scientology”, Church of Scientology International, 1988, p. 17]

Here, too, ABLE is an integral part of the management structure, as “Command Channels” and an accompanying organisation chart of the “Flag Network Coordination Committee headed by CO Flag Command Bureaux”:

The Flag Command Bureaux is [sic] headed by a Commanding Officer. He is the senior to the Commanding Officers of each of the management units which make up the Flag Command Bureaux (the Flag Bureaux, SMI International, WISE International, ABLE International, BRIDGE Publications and NEW ERA Publications).
[“The Command Channels of Scientology”, Church of Scientology International, 1988, p. 25]

• International Management

At the top of the management tree is International Management,

the top echelon of the Church. It has the responsibility of providing strategies and tactical plans for each sector of Scientology. It is where the directions for the different sectors are coordinated so as to forward the overall expansion of Scientology.

International Management comprises several units, each with its specific responsibility and duties. The top level of this echelon is the WATCHDOG COMMITTEE.

The purpose of the Watchdog Committee is to establish competent and functioning management units which direct the various sectors of Scientology and which get these sectors to accomplish their individual purposes, to the result of the continuous expansion of Scientology.
[“The Command Channels of Scientology”, Church of Scientology International, 1988, pp. 8, 10]

The Watchdog Committee is described as “the highest ecclesiastical authority in the Church”. It is also extremely secretive; very little is known about its membership, except that is “is composed of veteran Scientology executives who have proven their competence in handling lower organizations and who are highly trained in L. Ron Hubbard administrative technology”. According to “Command Channels”, “different types of organizations in Scientology are grouped into sectors and each of those sectors has management organizations to give them direction.” One of these sectors is “the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) sector (covers the social reform activities which are promoted and supported by the Association for Better Living and Education)”, as the following diagram illustrates:

Each sector has a Watchdog Committee member assigned to it – hence there is a senior Scientologist with the title of “WDC ABLE”, who is ultimately responsible for the management of that organisation. Just who that individual might be is unknown outside of the top management of the Church of Scientology. The Church does not seem to have publicly named any of the Committee’s members, and the only one named in the leaked IRS documents is Marc Yager, Chairman of the Committee and Commanding Officer of the Commodore’s Messenger Organization International.

• The Church of Spiritual Technology and the Religious Technology Center

Corporately separate from the Church of Scientology but nonetheless part of the overall Scientology corporate empire – “Scientology-related entities” in the jargon of the CSI/IRS tax-exemption agreement – are two bodies which are not formally part of the management chain but are nonetheless the most important elements of the whole conglomerate. The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) holds all of the copyrights to L. Ron Hubbard’s works, including his Scientology works, his pulp fiction stories, his novels and – most importantly from our point of view – all of the Narconon courses. [See a list of CST’s Narconon copyrights.] The Library of Congress has no records of copyrights currently being held by Narconon; indeed, Narconon has actually transferred ownership to CST of several items. This means that CST can (and does) extract royalties from any part of the Scientology conglomerate for the use of Hubbard’s works. In the case of Narconon, this relationship appears to be through ABLE, from which Narconon sub-licences copyright material. It is clearly extremely lucrative; documents released in the course of CST’s litigation against the IRS showed that the corporation held some $503 million in its accounts. CST often does business under the name of “L. Ron Hubbard Library”, which appears on some of Narconon’s materials.

The Religious Technology Center is likewise not shown in the formal management chain – it does not even appear in the “Sectors of Scientology” diagram – but is nonetheless the key organisation, at the apex of the pyramid. It controls all of the Scientology trademarks (except those of the “secular” organisations, held by ABLE). Its formal role is to authorise and supervise the use of all L. Ron Hubbard materials and Scientology trademarks. Unlike the comparatively passive CST, it has the authority to “police the exact application of the standard ethics and justice policies and see that effective measures are taken to thwart those who may intentionally attempt to misuse the trademarks of Dianetics and Scientology.” It is, so to speak, the biggest stick held by Scientology management – it can put Scientology organisations out of business, discipline executives and otherwise intervene intrusively in any part of the Scientology management structure, as “the organization which polices the command channels of Scientology”. [“Command Channels”, pp. 6-7] This gives a tremendous amount of power to its chairman, David Miscavige. As a result, he generally recognised by the courts, media and not least Scientology’s own publications as the leader of Scientology. (There is also a “President of the Church of Scientology International”, Heber Jentzsch, but this is principally a PR rather than management post.)

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Narconon and the Sea Organization

Although it is hardly ever mentioned publicly, ABLE is in fact entirely manned by members of Scientology’s Sea Organization; some of Narconon’s staff, including corporate officers, are also Sea Organization members. A survey on ABLE distributed with the magazine of the International Association of Scientologists included the following:

ABLE INTERNATIONAL AND THE SEA ORG

ABLE International is the International headquarters of all ABLE activities on the planet and acts as the umbrella organisation for Criminon Int, Narconon Int, The Way to Happiness Foundation and Applied Scholastics Inc.

It is a unique organisation in that it is staffed exclusively by members of the Sea Org.
[“How is your knowledge of ABLE?”, in Impact magazine, issue 79, 1997]

The Sea Org, as it is known known colloquially, was founded in 1967 as an elite group of Scientologists – in fact, “the most elite and powerful group in the history of this planet”, according to the Sea Org magazine High Winds – who
accompanied L. Ron Hubbard aboard his mini-fleet of ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Although the ships are no more, its members are still distinguished by their quasi-naval uniforms, military ranks and the famous “billion year contract” which they are required to sign, pledging themselves to the Sea Org for the next billion years. There are some 5,000 members of the Sea Org worldwide, with all advanced Churches and management-level Church organisations employing only Sea Org members.

From the start, the Sea Org was designed to be the spearhead of ideological purity in Scientology, driving out “incorrect” applications of Hubbard’s principles. Hubbard declared its purpose to be “to get [Scientology] ethics in on this planet and the universe”. Sea Org members sign up to a code of conduct which includes the promise “to do my part to achieve the Sea Org’s humanitarian objective which is to make a safe environment where the Fourth Dynamic Engram can be audited out”, following Hubbard’s declaration that:

All the Sea Org is interested in is getting tech in on the planet. It may sound like we’re trying to get ethics in, but that’s inevitable. We’re trying to get tech in on the planet. We’re trying to audit out the Fourth Dynamic Engram and furnish an environment in which it can be done. And that is the general overall objective of the Sea Org. And naturally we have to make sure that it also gets audited. Otherwise, there would be no point in putting any ethics in.
[Hubbard, “Ethics and Case Supervision”, lecture of 13 October 1969]

In Hubbard’s own words, what he meant by “the Fourth Dynamic Engram” was:

By engram we mean the mental block that prevents peace and tolerance. By fourth dynamic we mean that impulse to survive as mankind instead of just individuals.
[Hubbard, “Ron’s Journal 68”, 1968]

The means of tackling the “Fourth Dynamic Engram” is, of course, through Scientology. The Sea Org is “an organization of expansion”, as Hubbard put it, and ABLE and the other “social betterment” organisations under ABLE are a crucial element of that drive for expansion. The drive to “boom” Scientology was redoubled in the mid-1990s with a campaign to “lead the planet to OT” [Operating Thetan, the highest level of spiritual advancement in Scientology]:

[T]he Sea Org launched an inexorable drive to get the planet to OT – the most massive and far-reaching campaign ever undertaken in Sea Org history.

At the foundations of this campaign were major projects to get LRH books and technical materials into the hands of people the world-over, in numerous languages … We released new LRH lecture series and we broadly forwarded LRH’s image into society at levels never attained before. With unsurpassed quality publications such as Images of a Lifetime and the new RON Series, we reached out to new publics – from judges to kings – bringing enlightenment.
[“Leading the Planet to OT”, Freewinds magazine, 1996]

In recent years, the Church of Scientology has attempted to portray the Sea Org as a “fraternal order” denoting religious loyalty, rather than a formal military-style chain of command:

The Sea Org is a descriptive name for individuals who have pledged themselves to eternal service of the Scientology faith. The Sea Organization is a religious fraternal order, like the Catholic priesthood, with its own rituals and traditions that exemplify and foster members’ shared and deeply-held commitment to the religion. It confers no corporate or ecclesiastic authority. Sea Org members are staff in many churches of Scientology across the globe. Any authority they have in the church entity that employs them derives from their position in that church structure and not their honorary status in the Sea Organization.
[Declaration of David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board, Religious Technology Center, 24 September 1999 – http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=9077N4yKo8hq7lUdvyURvu2Pcjjg%404ax.com&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain]

This view follows Hubbard’s statement in March 1974 that the Sea Org is “a fraternal organization existing within the formalized structure of the Churches of Scientology. It consists of highly dedicated members of the Church. These members take vows of eternal service. The Sea Organization life style of community living is traditional to religious orders.” [Hubbard, “Understanding Corporate Integrity”, Board Policy Letter of 9 March 1974] In practice, however, Scientology’s policies and publications show that the Sea Org plays far more than a merely symbolic role. Hubbard defined its specific function as being

to recruit, train, organize and send out to locations complete org or program units to establish high level functioning Dn [Dianetics] and Scn [Scientology] units, activities or courses so that they can attain the best possible results and effectiveness in their areas and to operate AOs [Advanced Organizations].
[Hubbard, Flag Order 1992, “Purpose of Sea Org Revised (Confidential)”, 14 May 1969]

These “orgs” or “units” are referred to as “Sea Org Missions” and, under a 1969 directive from Hubbard, have “unlimited powers” to target failing Scientology organisations and “get ethics in”. This can result in major changes of policy and personnel in the targeted organisations; for instance, at the Stevens Creek Scientology organisation, “Two execs who refused to get the show on the road were removed and replaced” while in Zurich, Switzerland, “One executive who was not executing the program had to be removed”. [“The Sea Org Removes All Stops to Expansion,” High Winds: The Magazine of the Sea Organization, issue 10, 1990]

As we have already seen, ABLE and the Church of Scientology’s Continental Liaison Offices are almost always physically co-located on Scientology premises. Both entities – ABLE and the CLOs – are also run and entirely staffed by the Sea Org.

As might be expected, the period of the power struggle (roughly 1981-82) proved to be an extremely turbulent period for the Church of Scientology, which shed a sizable number of its members as a result. However, it had a number of very important effects for Narconon. The first was that the Guardian’s Office was replaced by the euphemistically-named Office of Special Affairs (OSA), which has almost all of the responsibilities of its predecessor, engages in many of the same activities (including some of the disreputable ones) and is organised in much the same way. The big difference is that the OSA is subordinate to the Sea Org; its senior staff are all Sea Org members. In pre-OSA days, the Sea Org and the Guardian’s Office were two separate poles of power within the Church, and the rivalry was considerable; with the creation of the OSA, the functions of the GO have been wholly taken over by the Sea Org. Like the GO, the OSA has a “social liaison” section which interfaces with “social betterment groups” such as Narconon.

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Narconon and individual Scientologists

The organisational relationships described above were developed principally for legal, taxation and presentational reasons – it gives Narconon a degree of “plausible deniability” in matters involving its relationship with Scientology. But at the same time, Narconon depends on the support and active involvement of individual Scientologists. The link is provided by the Clear Expansion Committees, unincorporated bodies established under a 1994 programme to provide a direct link with the “social reform” groups.

The ultimate aim of all Scientologists is to “clear the planet”, in other words to ensure that everyone in the world becomes a Scientology “Clear”. According to Advance magazine issue 153 (April 2001), “Your Clear Expansion Committee is not only a vital group for anyone going Clear, it’s disseminating and using LRH tech to take your community to Clear.” As a Scientology source explains,

The Clear Expansion Committee is a new program that was launched in 1994 as a major new reach-out program.

To really clear one’s community, one must have field activities of all types. Of course these include Missions, Field Auditor Groups, Auditors Associations, Volunteer Ministers, Dianetics Counseling Groups and OT committees.

They must also include Gung-Ho Groups and the use of LRH’s Social Betterment tech such as study groups and schools that apply LRH Study Tech, Narconon, Criminon, The Way to Happiness Groups, WISE, Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights, and other scientology community reform groups.

While each of these field activites has it’s own purpose, all exist to get LRH tech used in the world, and bring us closer to a “Cleared Planet”.

A Clear Expansion Committee is an umbrella which coordinates all individual scientologists and groups involved in these activities so as to dramatically expand scientology in your area. Under the control of the Clear Expansion Committee all of these groups become an unstoppable force to clear the community.
[http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3591BAAE.61AA%40iag.net&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain]

Each Scientology organisation has an attached CEC, whose volunteers aim to “create a New Civilization.” [http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=6es6pt4r462oj5drbigtc960oltnh9b1q6%40ARSCC.Sweden.Dep.OSA.Surveillance&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain]

An illustration of what CECs do in practice is provided by the one in Hawaii, whose President described its activities in a 1998 e-mail to a Scientology e-mail list:

HAWAII EXPANSION NEWS!!!

We have some exciting things occuring in Hawaii. Our Clear Expansion Committee is factually starting to do exactly that (Clearing Hawaii). We started in February with a handful of people with the purpose to do whatever it takes to help our orgs (Hawaii Day and Foundation) to go Saint Hill Size. We are are working hard to acheive this goal. We now have over 40 active members on the CEC and are breathing life into an earlier dormant Scientology field …

We also have the ABLE area coming alive. Our ABLE In Charge is getting Criminon going here and at last count we have 38 prisoners on the Way to Happiness Extension Course. We believe there are many more than that on the course. There are much bigger plans in this area.
[Myron Thompson, e-mail of 1 May 1998]

Some of the CECs have their fingers in a great many pies; it was reported in 1998 that the Flag Clear Expansion Committee in Clearwater, FL had expanded to include 76 active community groups. However, Scientologist involvement in the community is not always done openly, as the example of Narconon illustrates. This appears to be a deliberate practice. A 1960 bulletin by Hubbard, “Special Zone Plan”, has been reprinted in CEC publications such as the Flag Clear Expansion Committee Newsletter [“Spinoffs spread group’s message”, St. Petersburg Times, 7 Aug 1995]; in it, Hubbard advises Scientologists to “just enter” wider society and introduce the principles of Scientology:

A housewife, already successfully employing Scientology in her own home, trained to professional level, takes over a woman’s club as secretary or some key position.

She straightens up the club affairs by applying comm [sic] practice and making peace, and then, incidental to the club’s main function, pushes Scientology into a zone of special interest in the club – children, straightening up marriages, whatever comes to hand, and even taking fees for it – meanwhile, of course, going on being a successful and contributing wife.

The cue in all this is don’t seek the cooperation of groups. Don’t ask for permission. Just enter them and start functioning to make the group win through effectiveness and sanity.
[Hubbard, “Special Zone Plan”, HCO Bulletin of 23 June 1960]

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Narconon and the International Association of Scientologists

The International Association of Scientologists (IAS) plays an important role in funding and supporting Narconon. Formed in England in 1984, it has become the main conduit by which money is channelled from ordinary Scientologists – for whom membership of the IAS is virtually mandatory – to the “social reform” organisations. Its declared aim is “To unite, advance, support and protect the Scientology religion and Scientologists in all parts of the world so as to achieve the aims of Scientology as originated by L. Ron Hubbard”. This involves “providing the wherewithal to get ethics in on this planet so the tech can go in”. [Quotes from Impact magazine, issue 69, 1996] In practice, this means

• Contributing to the costs of litigation against Scientology’s perceived enemies – the IAS maintains a “War Chest” for this purpose “so that the future of Scientology can be guaranteed without question” by “handling the suppression that threatens the future of this planet”. Its targets have included governments, psychiatric organisations and even the police: its 1991 goals included the target “Eradicate Interpol”.
• Funding “massive public information campaigns so that people know the truth about Scientology”.
• Funding the expansion of “social reform” organisations such as Narconon, Criminon and “study technology” programmes worldwide. This is intended to achieve the “Aims of Scientology”; one internal Scientology publication reported on a briefing by IAS executive Karen Hollander, who “covered several different areas of the world where LRH technology, injected into society with the support of the IAS, is bringing us closer every day to achieving the Aims of Scientology. One is Narconon Arrowhead…” [Scientology News issue 21, p. 40]
• Supporting the work of the Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights – Scientology’s anti-psychiatry front – with the aim of “eradicating psychiatry” and “thereby eliminating once and for all the source of suppression on this planet”. This task was originally scheduled for completion by 2000, but this unachieved deadline now appears to have been quietly shelved.

In a distillation of Scientology’s “salvation for cash” approach to spiritual advancement, IAS members are encouraged to donate huge sums of money and are awarded ranks and badges or plaques of merit in recognition of their contributions (denominated in US dollars). These are, respectively:

Sponsor – $5,000
Crusader – $10,000
Honor Roll – $20,000, or signing up 20 people to be IAS members
Patron – $40,000
Patron with Honors – $100,000
Patron Meritorious – $250,000
Gold Meritorious – $1,000,000
Senior Honor Roll – signing up 100 people to be IAS members, or contributing to IAS expansion “in some stellar fashion”.

Considerable amounts of money have thereby been channeled to Narconon. According to Narconon International,

From time to time, Narconon centers and Narconon International itself have requested grants from the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) for specific Narconon needs. The IAS has provided grants to the Narconon organization for such important projects as the pilot installation of the Narconon program inside Ensenada State Prison in Baja California, Mexico, and the purchase by Narconon International of the beautiful quarters of Narconon Mediterraneo outside of Seville, Spain.
[“Support For the Narconon® Program” – <http://www.narconon.org/narconon_support.htm>]

Not surprisingly, numerous Narconon executives are listed in Church magazines as “patrons” of the IAS, meaning that they have each donated at least $40,000.

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Scientology – A Masked Branch of Masonic Judaism

Scientology – A Masked Branch of Masonic Judaism

25.04.2013 • 2,966 Views

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Jack Parsons and Esoteric Templar Science – ROBERT SEPEHR

Robert Sepehr

464K subscribers

138,162 views Premiered Apr 20, 2022

Jack Parsons was an American rocket engineer, chemist, and occultist. Associated with the California Institute of Technology, Parsons was one of the principal founders of both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. The People of Other Worlds    • The People of Other Worlds – ROBERT S…   Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He was the head of the Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O or or ‘Order of Oriental Templars’) and founded the religion of Thelema, with the stated goal of guiding humanity into the Age of Horus in the early 20th century. VRIL the Universal Free Energy    • VRIL the Universal Free Energy – ROBE…   L. Ron Hubbard was an American author of science fiction, Naval Intelligence Officer during WW2, and student of the occult who founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established a series of organizations to offer spiritual services, similar to past life regression.

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Scientology and the IlluminatiScientology and the Illuminati

Cult or Fiction, You Decide; What Every Person Should Know About These Dangerous Cults

Your choice will dictate Heaven or Hell. Will you choose wisely? In John 14:6 (KJV), Jesus said, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Find out how the truth will set you free… Why should I read this book? This book will help distinguish between Scientology, the Illuminati, modern-day cults, and true Christianity! Scientology owns $400 million of the real estate in Hollywood, CA alone, which explains why many celebrities are attached to this cult. Scientologists go through stages and certificates to prove themselves to their church, which is bondage like many other cults. Christ does not work this way! It is a free gift for you! The Illuminati are often linked to Freemasons. The Illuminati controls business, government, and entertainment. Thousands of Illuminati are entertainers,

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Project Normandy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the smartphone also known under the codename Project Normandy, see Nokia X.

Project Normandy was a top secret Church of Scientology operation wherein the church planned to take over the city of Clearwater, Florida, by infiltrating government offices and media centers. Gabe Cazares, who was the mayor of Clearwater at the time, used the term “the occupation of Clearwater”^[1] and later characterized it as a “paramilitary operation by a terrorist group”.^[2]

History

In the 1970s, the Church of Scientology Corporation used a front group, called the “United Churches of Florida”, to purchase the Fort Harrison Hotel, for $3 million. The church established their headquarters in the Fort Harrison Hotel, and dubbed it their Flag Land Base.

In 1977, an FBI raid on Scientology headquarters uncovered internal Church of Scientology documents marked “Top Secret” that referred to their secret operation to take over Clearwater, as “Project Normandy”. The document states its purpose as “obtain[ing] enough data on the Clearwater area to be able to determine what groups and individuals B1 will need to penetrate and handle in order to establish area control”. The document says its “Major Target” is “to fully investigate the Clearwater city and county area so we can distinguish our friends from our enemies and handle as needed”.^[3]

On November 3, 1979, the Clearwater Sun ran an article with the headline “Scientologists plot city takeover” and later stories claimed that the Scientologists also had international plans to take over the world.^[4] The St. Petersburg Times won a Pulitzer Prize for one of their stories that exposed some of the criminal wrongdoings of the Church of Scientology.^[1] Cazares also noted that he found it odd that a religious group would resort to using code names for a project to take control of a town, and called the project a “paramilitary operation by a terrorist group”.^[5]

The Church of Scientology targeted Cazares, attempting to entrap him in a sex scandal.^[6][7] Scientology also staged a phony hit-and-run accident with Cazares in an attempt to discredit him. Cazares and his wife sued the Church of Scientology for $1.5 million. The church settled with Cazares in 1986.^[8]

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SCIENTOLOGIST PLOT DETAILED IN COURT FILE

Document Type:

CREST [1]

Collection:

General CIA Records [2]

Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):

CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410012-3

Release Decision:

RIFPUB

Original Classification:

K

Document Page Count:

2

Document Creation Date:

December 16, 2016

Document Release Date:

November 1, 2004

Sequence Number:

12

Case Number:

Publication Date:

October 26, 1979

Content Type:

NSPR

File:

Attachment	Size
CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410012-3.pdf [3]	221.89 KB

Body:

AR’TLt?I,EPP’AD ~~Ied” .i,A,E A oved For d~~i 13~~ iA~ a b~ ~ R00040cta er Sci~ntoOgist ‘;lot Detailed . &-% rt.file. Document Theft Ring crated for Years The:leadership,of the Founding Church, of Scientology engaged fn a, massive conspiracy far,at;leastfouri, years to steal secret documents from government agencies, trade associa- tions, Washington-law-offices-and– various newspapers,;-court.,.docu ments released late yesterday show. The documents also indicate that a second .conspiracy,-occurred,from. June 1976 into July 1977 in’a’.Scien- tology attempt to cover up the wide- spread, highly organized documents: thievery ring. The factual accuracy of the docu- ments has been agreed. to by the Scientologists’ lawyers ; The Scientology plan to infiltrate 136 government agencies, plus numerous other groups,, began;: to unravel in mid-1976 :…. Three federal grand juries investi gated various aspects of the=Scien- tologists’ .activities and prosecutors ,spent the last 2′ years working to-..,., ing today in the criminal conspiracy- case against nine top Scientologists . , i Sue Hubbard, wife-of`-`church fo.tin r,~ L; Rcsix 31a1x40t.0. gave gigree*d~t:ittxert~gi3ltlx Bt?, atttti eyar+ accept.. verdicts. of guilty from.U.S.a the conspiracy in. whfch:Scientolo gists gave awards to church-..mem- bers who succeeded` in’,re’moving thousands of classified-documents The court papers were unsealed, late yesterday, by Richey, in prepara-, tion fora hearing today at which they judge is expected to.find each of the, Scientology defendants guilty of:one: dictment.:., :.i.. K.. -Internal- Revenue Service creden-,,, flouse.nere arouse’ 101113 of a law librarian AIPM the two were released, the-investiga- The thrust. of the Scientology theft lion begun that day –June 11, 1976 plan was three-fold – resulted in the arrests that proved ; o Illegally photocopy any docu: crucial to untangling the secret ments relating to-.iuvestigations ofJ dots. Scientology for possible tax viola–, The Scientology documents show . tions and other crimes ,’.at church officials wanted to pene- o Illegally’-photocopy any docu: gate the government. illegally to fight what the church considered ill-:gal harassment, including numerous tax audits, designed to The scope of the conspiracies be- association operations that-might:- carne evident to prosecutors in June embarrass them when leaked to the ,1 .977 when Michael Meisaer, one of house,.became disgruntled with his Scientology superiors Meisner surrendered. to-;FBI: agents on June 20,.1977,.4er. escap- ing from-. a’ -Los Angeles: apartment where ‘the Scientologists. had kept. him under nearly: constant guard: while coaching him. n. a cover.. story= to give federal investigators Had an agreement.not?been reached to have. guilty – verdicts- entered. against the. Scientologists without a trial,..Meisner, who..re- mains. in the federal- protectiv=e custody, would have-been. the star witness He identified numerous other Scientology ‘operatives;.including a woman who obtained copies of CIA, Defense Intelligence”Agency and o Cher.:.security agency..documents while- employed- by- the. Drug En-;, forcement.Admimstratioa. . That woman, Nancy Douglas, re- layed the documents to-other Scien- tologists in Washington who- forwarded t=hem -up. the. chain of., command to the Los. Angeles office of the military-style church-hier- archy:. Sh,e- also is’ under federal protection. Methods. used :included placing. Scientologists=as secretaries and other low level employes.in-various, agencies to copy documents surrep- tiously, forging identification cards for entry__into government build ings, forced. entry, electronically ,,J bugging offices, and even the impor tation of a lock-picking’ expert. from.- Los Angeles to crackextra tough file; Scientologists in 1976 were dozens in the Justice ‘Department and. the includin- _ ternal Revenue Service I , n the office of then-Deputy Attorney, I record”‘- an account of-the facts of General Harold B. Tyler Jrthe case that will be presented’ in -1 lieu of testimony. please 2005/01/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410012-3 ments that might be used to intimi date so-called enemies” of the.,’ church While some of. the burglaries at Justice-and IRS had been mentioned< in the indictments handed up by a _ federal grand jury Aug.- 151978, many others-were not publicly con firmed until yesterday- They , include infiltration by Scien? tologists working as: employees at Coast Guard Intelligence, the Drug ., Enforcement Administration, IRS of- fices-ia Los Angeles and London;.. Interpol offices here and in London, the office of the district attorney in Los Angeles, the California Attorney- General’s Office and the San Diego Police Department. When the Scientologists learned 1, through church lawyers that the Internal Revenue Service was plan- ping a November 1974 conference about the tax-exempt status of the – church’s branch in Hawaii, an ex- pert at bugging rooms was flown here by the church to plant a device to eavesdrop on the IRS conference. – : The documents say that the Scien- tology electronics man was taken into IRS headquarters by another -! Scientologist with phony IRS creden- tials who. acted as a-lookout while; ;the :bugger implanted- a-transmitter in-an. electric. socket in..the confe ence. room wall. The.entire confer== ence.then was broadcast. to, an: FiUL- radio`in a Scientologist’s:car oppo=-.. site- the IRS headquarters at 111t’ ? Constitution Ave.. NW. =.] -The American Medical Associa — { tion headquarters in Chicago and.- :th&. offices of the AMA’s lawyers’ .1 heree also were “Penetrated”‘ by Scientology agents called “mission ?aires” by the church. ,” The outline-of the government’s’,; case. against. the – Scientologists is agents.to question the two Aithoughi  Approved For R+ I e4 Q /~Q ~ p – [ PO?. .tutors led by-Assistant US,..=Attorney :Raymond Banoun and agreed upon by attorneys for the Scientologists, who continue to’contend that they -.were prosecuted for religious .rea sons.-/ Had the-defendants’ pleaded .guilty, they would have lost the right to appeal:. The agreement calls for. thej church’s..No. 2 official, Hubbard, to. be found guilty of one count of’con- spiracy to obstruct justice, obstruct; an investigation, to harbor a fugitive and to make false declarations be-‘ fore the grand jury. That crime carries a possible sen- tence of up to’five years in jail and a $10.000 fine. Other defendants expected to ac- cept a verdict on that charge are; Henning Heldt, the British-based church’s,.top U.S. official, ‘Duke” Snider,_ Richard. Weigand, Gregory .Wiilardson…..Gerald Bennett Wolfe and Cindy Raymond. Mitchell Hermann, also known as ‘Mike Cooper; who oversaw-.’many- of, the burglary operations.here,’is ex` pected to=be found guilty of conspir’ ?acy to intercept oral communica tions,.burglarize and steal. Sharon.,..Thomas; who was em={ ploye, as: a Justice Departments secretary, and was one of the princi- pals involved in the illegal photo- copying- of government documents;’, which ‘:the ‘ Scientologists^ code-i’ named “Judys;” is expected’.to be If found guilty of theft of government I documents. That crime carries a J penalty of one year and a $1,000 fine…’; Approved For Release 2005/01/13 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410012-3

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Source URL: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp88-01315r000400410012-3

Links
[1] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document-type/crest
[2] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/collection/general-cia-records
[3] https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP88-01315R000400410012-3.pdf

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How Scientology Got 5,000 Secret Agents in the Government

Half as Interesting

2.65M subscribers

849,582 views Mar 31, 2020

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Hostile Takeover of Scientology: How the Deep State Waged War Against Our Religion

Editor  Andreas M. B. Gross

• DESCRIPTION
• DETAILS

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CONTINUE TO:  UNSOLVED MYSTERIES Part 3