Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (33 page)

In March, Hubbard published “What is Greatness?,”
³¹
which rounded off his statements of February: “The hardest task one can have is
to continue to love one's fellows despite all reasons he should not ... A
primary trap is to succumb to invitations to hate. There are those who appoint
one their executioners. Sometimes for the sake of the safety of others, it is
necessary to act, but it is not necessary also to hate them.”

On March 1, the short-lived Public Investigations Section
became the Guardian's Office (GO).
³²
“Noisy investigation,” or
rumor-mongering, was not their only talent, and the GO became a formidable
force. After the false starts of the Office of Official Affairs and the
Department of Government Affairs, Hubbard at last had his own private
Intelligence Agency.

John McMaster became the ambassador of Scientology. He was
Hubbard's deliberate choice for the “First Clear.” McMaster is slight with
naturally white hair, and is a remarkable public speaker with a compelling
voice. He was Scientology's spokesman in television interviews throughout the
English-speaking world, a personification, so it seemed, of gentleness and
love. While his message was being beamed over the airwaves, and delivered
personally to packed audiences the world over, the Scientology Organizations
were becoming increasingly less gentle and loving in their treatment of their
members and their enemies.

1.
   
HCO Executive Letter “Amprinistics”, 27 September 1965.

2.
   
“The Findings on the U.S. Food and Drug Agency [sic – should be
‘Administration’]”, Church of Scientology of California, pp.17-18, 1968.

3.
   
ibid
, Hubbard letter of 6 January 1963, p.19.

4.
   
For accounts of the raid see
“The
Findings...”; What is Scientology?, p.154;
Garrison,
The Hidden Story of Scientology,
p.132, and
Playing Dirty,
p.25.

5.
   
What is
Scientology
?, p.155.

6.
   
Cooper, p.118.

7.
   
Hubbard,
The Student Hat
,
The Basic Study Manual
, and the
Study Tapes.

8.
   
Author interviews with the mothers of two children removed from a school
run on Hubbard “study tech” and assessed by the schools they moved to.

9.
   
Technical Bulletins
, vol.6, p.177, “The Anti-Social Personality -
The Anti-Scientologist”.

10.
 
Organization
Executive Course
, vol.1, p.402.

11.
 
Author
interviews with McMaster, May 1984.

12.
 
Technical
Bulletins, vol.6, p.4.

13.
 
Scientology 88008
& Science of Survival.

14.
 
Author
interviews with McMaster.

15.
 
Technical
Bulletins, vol.6, p.19.

16.
 
Daily Mail
8 December 1965; see also Wallis, p.149
.

17.
 
I
may be in error calling Manson a “mass murderer”, as he was not convicted of
killing anyone, but of inciting others to do so. Manson makes brief mention of
his involvement with Scientology in his autobiography
Without Conscience
,
pp.13, 70, 73, 113. At p. 70, Manson says “I got pretty heavily into Dianetics
and Scientology.” The reference on p.113 is to Family member Bruce Davis’
involvement with the cult.
Without Conscience
, Manson with Nuel Emmons,
Grafton, London, 1986.

18.
 
Wallis,
p.152.

19.
 
e.g.
“Human Potential Resources”, Spring 1985, which advertises the Enlightenment
Intensive as a University summer school course, directed by an Open University
lecturer in England.

20.
 
Berner
was kidnapped and subjected to a staged version of OT3. Author interview with
the former Sea Org executive (Otto Roos) who carried out this “Mission” at
Hubbard's request.

21.
 
Carol
Kanda interview with Jack Horner; Wallis, p.150.

22.
 
Since
this was written, Horner has died and Eductivism disappeared off the map.

23.
 
Foster
report.

24.
 
ibid
,
paragraphs 12 & 181.

25.
 
Author
interviews with McMaster.

26.
 
Organization
Executive Course
, vol.2, p.119.

27.
 
There
are four Policy Letters which bear this title. This particular one is not
likely to be produced by the Scientologists. It was reprinted in Foster,
paragraph 181, and in the judgment in Wards B & G, Mr. Justice Latey
presiding, Royal Courts of Justice, July 1984.

28.
 
Foster,
paragraph 181.

29.
 
The
People, 20 March 1966.

30.
 
The Auditor,
issue 13.

31.
 
Technical
Bulletins
, vol.6, p.154.

32.
 
What is Scientology?,
p.184.

PART four

“If almost any person in the Sea
Organization were to appear in a Scientology group or Org he would be lionized,
red-carpeted and Very-Important-Personed beyond belief. For the Sea
Organization is composed of the 'aristocracy' of Scientology.”

— L
RonHubbard, The Sea Organization,

 
Flag
Order 137
, 12 September 1967

Chapter eighteen

“Scientology thrives on a climate of
ignorance and indifference.”

—Kenneth
Robinson, British Minister for Health

The Guardian took orders only from the Executive Director of
the Church of Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard was appointing a deputy. He kept the
new position in the family: Mary Sue Hubbard was the first Guardian, later
becoming the “Controller,” a post created between the Executive Director and
the Guardian.
¹

Among the duties of the Guardian was the “LRH Heavy Hussars
Hat” (a misnomer, as Hussars were
light
cavalry). “Hat” was Hubbard's
usual term for “job.” The Guardian's Office (or “GO”) would deal with any
“threat of great importance” to Scientology. The tenure of most executives in
Scientology organizations is usually brief; the Guardian is one of the few
exceptions. Jane Kember, Mary Sue's successor, held the position for 13 years.
Mary Sue was her superior, as Controller, throughout that time.

The Guardian's Office was responsible for responding to any
attack on Scientology. An “attack” might simply be a quizzical newspaper article.
The GO is well-remembered in London, where the press is still reticent about
Scientology stories. The “Legal Bureau” of the GO issued
hundreds
of
court writs, losing count of the number it had initiated.
²
The GO
dealt with public relations, legal actions, and the gathering of
“intelligence.” It conducted campaigns against psychiatry, Interpol, the
Internal Revenue Service, drug abuse, and government secrecy, largely under the
heading “Social Coordination,” or “SOCO.”

The GO campaign against the tax authorities was not
altogether altruistic. On April 30, 1966, the Hubbard Communications Office Ltd
filed its annual accounts with the Inland Revenue in the Britain. Sir John
Foster later commented in his government report
³
: “According to the
last set of accounts filed for HCO Ltd that company seems to have been
conducting an unsuccessful garage business [Hickstead Garage] The auditor's
[accountant's] certificate is heavily qualified: various documents could not be
traced, vehicles had vanished, 'the sales figure in the trading account cannot
be regarded as anywhere near accurate' [according to the Scientology accountant],
and there had been litigation with a manager who went bankrupt. The company
ended up owing Mr. Hubbard £1,356.”

The man who was owed this sum was absent from Saint Hill for
a large part of 1966. Most of that time was spent in Rhodesia. Hubbard quietly
assured his lieutenants that he had been Cecil Rhodes in his last lifetime, so
he saw his visit to Rhodesia as a homecoming.
⁴

Hubbard went into business in Rhodesia, putting up part of
the purchase money for the Bumi Hills resort hotel on Lake Kariba.
⁵
He also hob-nobbed with the social elite. He appeared on television, telling
the audience he was no longer active in Scientology, and had become a permanent
resident of Salisbury. He must have been dismayed when that permanence crumbled
with the Rhodesian refusal to renew his visa. He put a brave face on it,
returning to England in July, to be met at the airport by hundreds of cheering
Scientologists.
⁶

In Rhodesia, Hubbard had prepared the first two Operating
Thetan levels. After attaining the state of Clear, Scientologists could now progress
toward “total freedom” through the OT levels. Hubbard asserted that an
Operating Thetan is capable of
operating
, of perceiving and causing
events, while separate from his body. By doing the OT levels an individual
would liberate his latent psychic abilities.
⁷
From 1952, Hubbard
continually insisted that the latest techniques would bring about the state of
“full OT.”

The US Internal Revenue Service was less interested in
Hubbard's
spiritual
motivation, than in the mounting evidence of his
financial
motivation. At the end of July, the IRS notified the Church of Scientology of
California that its tax-exempt status was being withdrawn, giving three
reasons: Scientology practitioners were making money from the “non-profit”
Church; the Church's activities were commercial; and the Church was serving the
private interests of L. Ron Hubbard.
⁸

Hubbard's thoughts were elsewhere, and in a flight of
fantasy, he proclaimed John McMaster the first “Pope” of Scientology in August
1966.
⁹
The title did not endure.

It seemed that McMaster was to be Hubbard's public
successor. In fact, he was simply an emissary with little real power in the
organization. Hubbard maintained the charade of handing over responsibility by
resigning as President and Executive Director of the Church. His resignation
was announced to Scientologists, but was not actually filed with the Registrar
of Companies in England for three years.
¹⁰
It was yet another public
relations gesture. Hubbard still controlled the bank accounts,
¹¹
and
still held the undated resignations of the board members of his many
corporations. He still wrote the Policy of the Church, and issued his orders
via written Executive Directives. Indeed, the title of Executive Director was
abandoned until 1981, when Hubbard finally appointed a replacement. Hubbard
retained the day-to-day control of his empire of Orgs.

Early in 1966, the LRH Finance Committee had been
established to determine how much the Church owed Hubbard.
¹²
In
September, Hubbard told the press he had forgiven the Church a $13 million debt.
¹³
The LRH Finance Committee had however failed to document the millions Hubbard
had taken out of the Church. The Committee had appraised Saint Hill as having a
business goodwill value of £2 million (the estate itself was valued at less
than £100,000). The Committee also included such items as the purchase price of
the yacht used by Hubbard for his Alaska trip in 1940. All part of the
Hubbard's “research” from which the Church purportedly benefited.

In August 1966, the Henslow case exploded into the British
newspapers.
¹⁴
Karen Henslow was a schizophrenic who had been
institutionalized before her contact with Scientology. She had fallen in love
with a Scientologist, who promised to marry her. Henslow had worked at St Hill,
and taken a Scientology course. Then one night she was “Security-Checked” into
the small hours, and deposited at her mother's house. She ran into the street
in her nightclothes, and ended up at the police station at 3.00 a.m., in a
highly distressed state.

Hubbard responded to the Henslow scandal by approving a more
thorough set of instructions for his tactic of “Noisy Investigation.”
¹⁵
A list was to be made of everyone associated with a perceived enemy. This was
to include their dentist and doctor, along with their friends and neighbors.
All of the people on the list were to be phoned and told that the perceived
enemy was under investigation for the commission of crimes, having attacked the
religious liberty of the caller. The person being called was to be told that
alarming information had already been gathered. The primary purpose of this
technique was not to collect information, but to spread suspicion about the
perceived enemy:

Soon as one of these threats starts you get a
Scientologist or
Scientologists
to investigate noisily. You find out where
he or she works or worked,
doctor
, dentist, friends, neighbors,
anyone
,
and phone 'em up and say, “I am investigating Mr./Mrs. ........... for criminal
activities as he/she has been trying to prevent Man's freedom and is
restricting my religious freedom and that of my friends and children, etc....

You say now and then, “I have already got some
astounding facts,” etc., etc. (Use a
generality
) ........... It doesn't
matter if you don't get much info. Just be NOISY - it's very odd at first, but
makes fantastic sense and WORKS. (Honestly, you feel a real dill, it's so
reverse to all detective work.)