Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (58 page)

Corydon’s wife was a Class 8 Auditor. The retaliation to the
“can’t pay” claim was rapid. Mary Corydon’s Auditor certificates were cancelled.
Corydon wrote:

Without Mary’s certificates, we were no longer in a position
to operate at all, according to laid-down policy. The Church would have to come
to our “rescue.” I soon got the call to come down to Los Angeles to the
Scientology Missions International Ethics Officer. This could mean only one
thing. They would propose that we be turned into an Organization. Orgs are
under total domination of management, and they own no property ... This in
other words would be the final and total takeover of our Mission.

Corydon had heard that both the Kansas City Org and the Omaha
Mission had splintered from the Church. He talked to these “squirrels,” and
decided that to continue delivering Scientology he too would have to splinter.
At the end of 1982 he did just that.

The International Finance Dictator fulfilled a part of his
promise, and all of the wealthier Missions were “verified” at tremendous expense.
A year after the Mission Holders’ Conference, the Scientology Missions
International statistic sheet for the week ending September 29, 1983, shows a
sad decline. From $808,435 world-wide in a week, in September 1982, down to
$171,356; a 79 percent reduction, and actually less than the earlier combined
income of Samuels’ five Missions.

After the Mission Holders’ Conference another corporate
instrument of the new management appeared: The International Hubbard Ecclesiastical
League of Pastors (or “I HELP”). Rather than working for Orgs or Missions, some
Scientologists simply give individual counseling. They are known as “Field
Auditors.” The more successful Field Auditors made very good money. In December
1982, I HELP called a meeting in Los Angeles. Several hundred field Auditors
attended and were ordered to join this new body. Membership would cost $100 a
year, and 10 percent of their gross income. The Field Auditors would also have
to fill in weekly reports. None of this was too worrying; however, to join they
had to waive all previous agreements with the Church, and sign a contract
binding them to the decisions of I HELP. Many shied away from signing. The tone
of the meeting reflected that of the earlier Mission Holders’ Conference, news
of which had inevitably travelled to the Scientology “field.” Of the hundreds
who attended, perhaps a dozen signed contracts that night.
⁴
Then the
bullying began.

For many years, Valerie Stansfield ran her own auditing
practice. She had been in Scientology for 20 years, and as a Class 9 Auditor
was very highly trained. In March 1983, she was telephoned by a Finance
Policeman and given half-an-hour to come to his office. She politely refused,
and after a harangue agreed to an appointment that evening. When she and her
husband Manfred arrived, she was told that her nutritional counseling was
“squirrel.” Then the Finance Policeman read a list of accusations, and demanded
that she hand over the counseling folders of all her clients immediately.
Valerie reluctantly agreed to give the Finance Police the folders, but urged
that they wait for a more opportune time to pick them up, as there were clients
at her house.
⁵

Then International Finance Police Ethics Officer, Don
Larson, walked in and started berating Valerie. He screamed abuse at her, and
ordered his underlings to remove Manfred Stansfield, who refused to leave.
Larson accused them both of “squirreling,” and told Manfred he was Suppressive.
Manfred returned the insult, to which Larson replied “You’re a fucking SP
[Suppressive] Get out.”

Shocked by this aggressive treatment, the Stansfields wrote
to their friends. The letter was one of the first public statements about the
tactics of the new management; it was recopied and distributed to an increasingly
bewildered Scientology field.

Outlandish fines were imposed on some of the new members of
I HELP. One Field Auditor was fined for introducing two of his Preclears who
subsequently did business together.
⁶
This was somehow construed as a
breach of ethics.

In the 1970s the “World Institute of Scientology
Enterprises” (WISE) came into being to cash in on successful businessmen who
were also Scientologists. Ostensibly it existed to offer consultancy services,
provide the most up-to-date Hubbard Policy Letters on administration, and train
the staff of Scientology businesses in the immense Administrative Technology.
Practically, WISE gave very little to its members for their tithes. Now the
Scientology business community in Los Angeles was invaded by the Finance
Dictator’s henchmen, and fines were levied for alleged abuses of privilege.
Intransigent businessmen were threatened with Suppressive declare. Those who
depended upon other Scientologists for the bulk of their business had no choice
but to pay up. At least one sizeable business had to send its entire staff to
Flag, in Clearwater, to do the Keeping Scientology Working Course, at a cost of
tens of thousands of dollars. Employees who complained were given Security
Checks, at their own expense. The man who had created the business was ostracized
for his “squirrel Tech.”
⁷

WISE also altered its contracts with businesses managed by
public Scientologists, which now had to pay a $250 annual membership, in
addition to a percentage of their income.

The Religious Technology Center, and its International
Finance Police, had effectively wrecked the network which had provided
Scientology’s interface with the public at large. They had also started a
massive schism, especially in California where most of these events took place.
Whether Hubbard’s $85 million Christmas present was delivered we do not know,
but Miscavige and company did their damnedest.

The purge of the so-called Executive Strata of the Sea Org
had continued. David Mayo and his staff had been removed in August 1982.
⁸
By the time of the Mission Holders’ Conference in October, there were 17 key
executives at Gilman awaiting a Committee of Evidence. Among them were the
Executive Director International and his Deputy; the Commanding Officer Canada;
the Commanding Officer of Scientology Missions International and his superior,
the Church Management Executive over Missions; the Commanding Officer Eastern
US; four members of the International Management Organization; the Commanding
Officer of the CMO film unit; the two senior Field Executives (whose boss,
Hubbard’s daughter Diana, had left shortly before); and former Chairman of the
Watchdog Committee and Commanding Officer CMO International, John Nelson.
⁹

Hubbard had organized Scientology in a series of
compartments, and with the detention of these executives the CMO had removed
all potential major opposition from each compartment of the Organization.

The detainees were moved to a place dubbed “Happy Valley,” a
remote camp inside an Indian reservation not far from Gilman. Although they
were not prevented from leaving, the former Sea Org executives were watched by
security guards. They were, however, told that if they left they would be
declared Suppressive for all eternity, and never readmitted to the Scientology
congregation.
¹⁰
It was a dreadful threat to committed Scientologists
who had devoted most of their adult lives to the Tech.

The group was subjected to a Committee of Evidence: a
Scientology trial, where the Committee act as prosecutors, judges and jury
rolled into one. They were charged with 36 offences, ranging from “knowingly
using Scientology to obtain sexual relations” to “being at the hire of
anti-Scientology groups.” David Mayo was found guilty of “committing a problem.”
The Findings and Recommendations of the Committee came to a total of over 90
pages. The major thread of the Findings dealt with the purported plot to
overthrow the CMO. It was asserted that Deputy Executive Director International
Allen Buchanan, one of the defendants, had been “brainwashed” by former ED Int,
Bill Franks: “The content of this brainwashing consisted essentially of imbuing
the concept that Scientology should be protected from higher officially constituted
Church Management. Buchanan then proceeded to make attempts to sever off Senior
Church Management’s authority and guidance ... Buchanan attempted to nullify
and undermine the efforts of those sincerely going about the business of
ensuring Scientology Management technology was being applied internationally.”
There are very few specifics amongst the bombast.

Although the Findings would usually remain an internal
document, there are translations of the Scientologese throughout. This suggests
that it was composed in part for the benefit of attorneys, should litigation
ensue. The Committee recommended that earlier threats of perpetual excommunication
be carried out.

Most of the recommended sentences include the statement: “he
may never again (for this or any further lifetime) receive counseling or training
from any Scientology Church organization. Scientologists shall not in the
future aid or communicate to him in any way.”

They further recommended that the Church should “Investigate
the bringing of criminal charges ... for violations of both State and Federal
statutes prohibiting Industrial Espionage and Sabotage, breach of Fiduciary
[sic] duty, breach of contract, conversion, theft, or other applicable
charges.”

The Inspector General of the Religious Technology Center
approved the recommendations for seven of the defendants, one of whom was the
only party to be exonerated (she had been seized by mistake); the other six had
already left Happy Valley in disgust. The 10 who remained were informed that
the Committee’s recommendations would be “held in abeyance should they wish to
recant.” Nonetheless, all of their Scientology certificates were cancelled.
David Mayo and his wife Merrill were both Class 12s, the highest Auditor class,
attained by only a handful of Scientologists. It would have taken at least four
years of full-time training for them to regain this status.

Each of the defendants was to “make a public announcement to
the effect that they realize their actions were ignorant and unfounded and stating
where possible the influences or motivations which caused them to attempt to
suppress or attack Scientology: gets [sic] it signed before witnesses and
published broadly.”

The Inspector General ended his statement thus: “It should
be noted that any benevolence implied by this endorsement is based only on the
very real workability of the technology of Scientology and Dianetics.”

The Happy Valley story was not over. During the summer of
1982, Hubbard had tested out a new idea with Mayo’s help. Executives were
becoming exhausted, so rather than shortening their 18 hour day, Hubbard had
issued the Running Program. Executives were to run around a fixed point for
about an hour a day, and take huge quantities of mineral supplements. For the
Happy Valley detainees the time was extended. They were to run, in desert heat,
for five hours a day, round and round a tree.
¹¹

Perhaps because of his especially potent contaminating
effect, Mayo was separated from the rest of the group, given a pole to run
around (and even ordered to paint it red). The runners took the affair as
lightly as possible. Only one guard was assigned to them, so Mayo and those at
the tree would take turns to sit down, and the guard would have to trek between
them to goad them back into action.
¹²

The Running Program took its toll. Mayo, a slight man, lost
25 pounds. Whether through the program, or the general lack of medical care
within the Sea Org, Mayo’s teeth and gums also suffered badly. In February
1983, convinced that he could do nothing to change the attitude of management,
he accepted his Suppressive Person declare and left.

1.
   
Complaint in Samuels v. Hubbard, Circuit Court, Oregon State, Multnomah
County, case no. A8311 07227, filed November 1983.

2.
   
Settlement agreement between Scientology and Michael Flynn.

3.
   
Corydon tape, July 1983; interview in Copenhagen Corner issue 11.

4.
   
Jon Zegel tape 1, June 1983.

5.
   
Stansfields “Knowledge Report”, 14 March 1983.

6.
   
see 4.

7.
   
see 4; also author’s interview with former employee of a WISE registered
business.

8.
   
David Mayo letter to “Mark”, 8 December 1983.

9.
   
Religious Technology Center Conditions Order 1-3 “Committee of Evidence
Findings and Recommendations”, 29 January 1983.

10.
 
Author’s
interviews with Jay Hurwitz, 1983 & 1986; Hurwitz letter to the children’s
scientologist father, 1983; see 8; author’s interview with Mayo, October 1986;
Merrill Mayo tape, 1983; author’s interview with John Nelson, January 1984.

11.
 
see
10; author’s interview with former Watchdog Committee member.

12.
 
Author’s
interview with Mayo.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“To in any way encroach upon the Church
or to distract one from moving up the Bridge to Total Freedom is the ultimate
crime,”

—Religious
Technology Center
Information Letter 1

The core group of Commodore’s Messengers had completed their
task. When they were first appointed to management at the end of 1979, with the
creation of the Watchdog Committee, there were two power groups, linked only
through Hubbard. The CMO had to absorb both the Guardian’s Office and the Sea
Org without being allowed to show any evidence that they were following
Hubbard’s direction.

The Watchdog Committee had gradually asserted control over
the everyday management of Scientology Churches. By May 1981, it was strong
enough to successfully challenge Mary Sue Hubbard. The GO was in its control by
August. Hubbard’s Personal Office was absorbed in 1981, with the creation of
the Product Development Office International. A purge of long-term Messengers
also took place in 1981, with the removal in June of Diane Voegeding, then
Commanding Officer of CMO. Her sister, Gale Irwin, replaced her, only to be
ousted at the end of the year. After removing Executive Director International,
Bill Franks, that December, John Nelson, the next Commanding Officer of the
CMO, lasted six months. By the end of 1981, the Missions had been placed under
the control of the new Scientology Missions International. A purge of Mission
Holders began early in 1982 culminating in the San Francisco Mission Holders’
Conference that October, where leading Mission Holders Martin Samuels, Kingsley
Wimbush and Dean Stokes were added to the growing list of excommunicants. Mayo
and his staff had been removed in August. By the end of 1982, most of the Sea
Org veterans who had held high positions had been declared Suppressive.