From: cultxprt@indirect.com (Jeff Jacobsen)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: CofS critique part 8 of 8
Date: 25 May 1994 15:44:34 GMT
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                           THE HUBBARD IS BARE        
CONCLUSION
                            by Jeff Jacobsen
                               PO Box 3541
                               Scottsdale, AZ  85271

     copyright 1992 by Jeff Jacobsen
     may be reprinted so long as it is kept in its entirety and not 
     edited.
          
      

     THE IDEAL DIANETICS SOCIETY
     
         ...if anyone wants a monopoly on Dianetics, be assured that 
         he wants it for reasons which have to do not with Dianetics 
         but with profit.1
     
        Hubbard's goal from the beginning was to "clear the planet",
     in other words, to see that everyone on earth became a clear.  Up
     until the time that this happened, he envisioned a sharp
     demarcation in status between clears (real people) and pre-clears
     (deficient people).  Only clears, for example, could marry and
     bear children.2  And if pre-clears did have children, they would
     most likely be taken away to avoid the "restimulative" affects
     that parents would have on the child.3
        "Perhaps at some distant date only the unaberrated person will
     be granted civil rights before law.  Perhaps the goal will be
     reached at some future time when only the unaberrated person can
     attain to and benefit from citizenship.  These are desirable
     goals."4  Would pre-clears have any rights whatsoever?  And what
     indeed would be the fate of those unfortunates who rejected
     Hubbard's ideas, or even spoke out against him?
        These questions can be answered to some degree by looking at
     the organizations that Hubbard built, and the status of people
     within and without these organizations.  Non-Scientologists are
     referred to by Scientologists normally as "wogs"5 or "raw meat,"
     6 depending on whether they were being considered generic
     outsiders or potential members.  The judicial system in outside
     society was referred to as the derogatory "wog law".  Outside
     society was an evil place surreptitiously controlled by
     psychiatrists, who ran the media and governments.  Psychiatry had
     been attacking dianetics from its inception, claimed Hubbard,
     "because they feared that as our power increased they would lose
     their easy appropriations and fail in their plan for a 1984
     World."7  It was to be a fight to the finish between the evil
     outside world and the valiant crew of Hubbardites.
        The goal of a Clear Planet was always the important thing.  If
     someone got in the way, they could be smashed.  Hubbard wrote the
     famous "Fair Game Policy" in 1967 in which he declared that
     anyone caught disturbing Scientology's mission could be "tricked,
     sued, or lied to, or destroyed."8  Another process called R2-45
     involved making a person "go exterior" (i.e. leave his body) by
     shooting the person in the head with a .45 pistol.  Hubbard did
     not say to use this process, however, because "its use is frowned
     upon by society at this time,"9 but there have been some
     disturbing incidents relating to R2-45. 
        Hubbard created a Guardian's Office, whose members were
     responsible for bulldozing anything or anyone that may stand in
     the way of Scientology.  After the G.O. was disbanded when Mary
     Sue Hubbard and other G.O. officers were sent to prison for
     infiltrating federal offices, the Office of Special Affairs took
     over the G.O.'s duties.
        Within the organization, ethics took on strange meaning. The
     purpose of ethics was "TO REMOVE COUNTER INTENTIONS FROM THE
     ENVIRONMENT,"10 which could be interpreted to mean to remove
     those obstructions to the church's accomplishing its goals.  A
     member stayed in good standing, not by being a good and moral
     person, but by making sure he was producing for the church - "a
     staff member can get away with murder so long as his statistic
     [i.e. work record] is up and can't sneeze without a chop if it's
     down."11  If the goal of a cleared planet was getting closer, and
     all nay-sayers and critics were silenced, then all was well in
     Hubbard's world, regardless of how these were accomplished.
        Hubbard ruled the organization of the church like a dictator
     with an eye for detail.  Every structure and action of every
     Scientologist was covered by some policy order or writing by
     Hubbard.  These had to be strictly followed.  If someone was not
     producing as much as was expected, he may be sent for a security
     check on the E-meter (a crude lie-detector) to see if he may be a
     subversive or suppressive person.  If a member seemed to be
     hindered by critical parents or a spouse, he would be ordered to
     "disconnect," or cut off communication with, those people seen to
     be impeding the work of the church.  Most outside interests and
     activities were given up to devote all possible time and energy
     to the church's goals.  In fact, members of the Sea Org, the
     innermost unit of the church hierarchy, sign a form pledging to
     devote themselves to Scientology for the next billion years.
        The church has its own penal system known as the
     Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF).  Those who have gone through
     the RPF describe a system similar to conditions in a gulag, where
     there are scraps for food, little sleep, constant physical labor,
     and intense degradation.12
        In short, what Hubbard created was one of the closest replicas
     of George Orwell's 1984 world in existence.
     
     
     1 DIANETICS, p.226
     2 DIANETICS, p.411
     3 DIANETICS, p.209
     4 DIANETICS, p.534
     5 DIANETICS AND SCIENTOLOGY TECHNICAL  DICTIONARY, p.471
     6 ibid. p.335
     7 "What Your Donations Buy" church of Scientology handout, p.3
     8 HCO Policy Letter October 16, 1967
     9 L. Ron Hubbard, THE CREATION OF HUMAN ABILITY (Sussex, England;
     Department of Publications Worldwide, 1954) p. 120
     10 HCO Policy letter of 18 June 1968
     11 HCO Policy letter of 1 September AD15 (i.e. 1965)
     12 A PIECE OF BLUE SKY, p. 206
     
     
     
                         CONCLUSION
     
        Toward the end of my research on this booklet, I was
     contemplating whether I really needed to read Korzybski's Science
     and Sanity, the gnostic Pistis Sophia, and to listen to about 40
     more hours of Hubbard's taped lectures I had access to before I
     could call my research done.  I decided that this was a case
     similar to the nuclear arms race; you don't really need 30,000
     atomic bombs if you already have 300.  In other words, there is a
     point of diminishing returns in gathering the lies, distortions,
     errors, and wacky ideas Hubbard promulgated.  After you have so
     many, there's really no reason to keep gathering.  Fortunately
     for both of us, I decided that I had compiled enough evidence
     already for my purpose, which was mainly to show Hubbard a fraud
     for claiming that his ideas were his invention and the only hope
     for mankind.
        I understand, however, that there are people who say "so what
     if he was a fraud, the tech. works!"  To this I respond, what do
     you mean by "works"?  Do you mean that you feel better after
     auditing?  Do you mean that you can actually leave your body? 
     That you can alter the physical universe?  That your IQ was
     increased tremendously, that you never have colds, that you are
     now more confident?  Just what do you mean?  I think what these
     people mean is it makes them feel better.  To that I would agree. 
     But I also hasten to add that just feeling better is not all
     there is to life.  In that case a lobotomized drunk might have
     the ideal life, since he is not burdened by any worries and
     always has that alcoholic high.
        I would submit that our goal should be not just feeling good
     but also learning about and learning how to live in the Real
     World.  There is a Real World that we all share (except, perhaps,
     for lobotomized drunks).  In this world, both of us will die if
     hit by a bus doing about 60 mph, even if one of us thinks that by
     positing a world where he survives such an encounter that he
     thereby will survive.  In this world, neither of us can control
     street lights just by our will so they will turn green before we
     get to the intersection.  And in this world, Scientology takes
     you away from the common sense and actuality of the Real World by
     taking you to a Fake World where you sacrifice reality for a
     sense of belonging and well-being.
        So, yes, Scientology works, so long as you wish to live in the
     Scientology World.  But if you want to live in the Real World, it
     doesn't.  I was in a cult myself for 6 years in my own Fake
     World.  From that experience I can say that I prefer the Real
     World with its uncertainties and problems to my Fake World where
     I knew all the answers and felt the bliss of my mystical
     experiences.  The Fake World is an easier world to live in, but
     what's the point?  What is gained by living like some kids today
     so deeply involved in Dungeons and Dragons fantasy that they
     loose sight of food, sleep, jobs, family, friends?  The Emperor
     in his new fake clothes was quite happy amongst people who also
     "saw" his wonderful robes, but when confronted by a child from
     the Real World, his Fake World disintigrated.  Is living in a
     Fake World really worth anything?  I think not.
     
        There is much more evidence that has been presented by others
     on the history of Scientology, the biographical data on L. Ron
     Hubbard, and the horrible experiences that many Scientologists
     have had.  It was not my goal to even touch any of the above, and
     it was not even my goal to comprehensively cover my selective
     topic.  It seemed to me that there was little written on the
     ideas of dianetics and Scientology and their evolution.  This is
     what I attempted to uncover.  My hope is that this will be useful
     for those who have left the church so they can better understand
     the illusion that caught them, for those who are investigating
     the church with thoughts of joining, and for those with a
     curiosity about one of the most dangerous organizations on earth
     today.  I also hope that this may be useful by suggesting an
     approach to the study of other cults and movements in the
     religious marketplace today.  
     
     
     
     
     FOR FURTHER READING:
     
     Russell Miller, BARE FACED MESSIAH (New York; Henry Holt and Co.,
     1987)
     
     Stewart Lamont, RELIGION, INC. (London: Harrap, Ltd., 1986)
     
     Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., L. RON HUBBARD, MESSIAH OR
     MADMAN? (Secaucus, NJ; Lyle Stuart, Inc., 1987)
     
     Jon Atack, A PIECE OF BLUE SKY (Carol Publishing Group, NYNY,
     1990)
     

--
cultxprt@indirect.com
Jeff Jacobsen
PO Box 3541
Scottsdale, AZ  85271      Here I stand - I can do no more.



