Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (3 page)

 Since leaving the Moonies in 1976, I have worked with
numerous people from hundreds of different cults. I can confidently say that Scientology
ranks as one of the worst of the worst. I remember talking with Paulette Cooper
who wrote the book,
The Scandal of Scientology
. Paulette was harassed
herself, falsely accused of a terrorist bomb plot and spied on by a
scientologist “best friend”. She was indicted by a grand jury. Then the largest
FBI raid in history revealed internal documents, vindicating Paulette
completely and sending eleven senior scientology officials, including Hubbard’s
wife, to prison.

I have frequently been subjected to scientology harassment.
For expressing my considered opinion of the group, I have become “fair game”,
to use Hubbard’s expression. Under this doctrine, Scientologists are encouraged
to harass opponents. I have been followed. I have been threatened. I have been
sued. I have had complaints against my license filed by Scientology. They have
gone through my trash. They have told neighbors that I am a criminal. They have
picketed my office in Nazi uniforms inviting people to “Join Steve Hassan’s
crusade against religions”. In all of these decades, it is so heartening to
read book after book and exposé after exposé of former officials who either
ordered these dirty tricks or have performed them and who now wish to expose
the organization.

Douglas Frantz wrote a two-part story in the
New York
Times
about how Scientology hired private investigators to dig up dirt on
IRS Commissioners and through back-door legal wranglings was able to end a
25-year fight with the IRS to gain tax exemption, which they have used ever
since to claim that they are now a
religion
. Scientology even lobbied
the U.S. Government to censure Germany for not recognizing it as a religion but
labeling it as a dangerous “psycho-sect”. Scientologists cannot work in
government organizations in Germany, because they have many times infiltrated
governments for the purpose of spying.

There are many who leave the Church of Scientology who
continue to believe in Hubbard and the “technology.” There is a whole independent
Scientology movement with tens of thousands of former Scientologists who
continue, in my opinion, to be detrimentally affected by their indoctrination. Many
believe they have benefited greatly, but I would strongly advise them to read
this book and break the taboo on discussing Hubbard’s ideas. Because close
scrutiny reveals fatal contradictions, the common denominator of dangerous
cultic ideologies. Be honest about any benefit you received, but understand
Hubbard’s intentions. Jon Atack’s papers are very useful for this purpose. No
one can continue to believe in Hubbard after reading
Never Believe a
Hypnotist!

The recent movie
The Master
, attempted to give
insight into Hubbard during the early days. I thought it was way too kind, even
with its portrayal of Hubbard as a grandiose, narcissistic sociopath. In
A
Piece of Blue Sky
, Atack has captured the true essence of Scientology,
using Hubbard’s real words.

Every good book about Scientology starts with this as its
foundation. None have yet equaled this exacting examination of the history of
scientology and its creator, because it leaves little to say. This is the first
objective history of the group, because Jon’s own previous membership never
gets in the way of his objectivity. As I said at the beginning: a must read!

—Steven Hassan, January
2013

Preface

Several years ago, when I began making inquiries into the
life and times of L Ron Hubbard, almost the first name that was mentioned to me
was that of Jon Atack. Subsequently it was a name that would crop up time and
time again. Almost anyone who knew anything about Hubbard invariably suggested
that I should talk to Jon Atack.

Of course by then I
had
talked to Jon and discovered
him to be one of the world’s foremost unofficial archivists of the Church of
Scientology. In the attic of his house in East Grinstead, he had collected
literally thousands of documents, letters, pamphlets, books and pictures, all
of it indexed and cross-referenced on computer. For anyone interested in the
history and development of Scientology, it is a treasure trove of reliable
information on a subject positively riddled with deeply unreliable information.
At some time in the future, the Atack archive will be lodged with an academic
institution in order that it will be forever available to future researchers.

Jon was extremely generous with his time, knowledge and help
while I was working on my biography of Hubbard and I am therefore delighted to
write this brief preface to his own, much more comprehensive and wide-ranging
book. It is, in essence, a distillation of his extraordinary attic archive and
thus provides the reader with a dispassionate, thoroughly documented, account
of how Scientology was created and nourished by a struggling science-fiction
writer, how it grew into a worldwide organization and how it has managed to
dominate (and damage) so many thousands of lives.

Because this book recounts the stark truth about
Scientology, it is certain to provoke the ferocious hostility of practicing
Scientologists around the world. Anyone who dares to publicly criticize the
Church of Scientology or its founder is liable to be vilified and hounded
through the courts, as I can personally testify. (Although it is a mystery to
me that Scientologists continue to believe that their founder was a man with
the highest regard for the truth, whereas the records consistently indicate
that he was a charlatan and a congenital liar.)

Jon Atack is a former member of the Church of Scientology
and I have no doubt that he will be attacked as a turncoat and traitor seeking
to cause damage to his former church. All I can say is that over the months and
years of our association I never doubted that his motives were decent and
honest; I never felt for a moment that he was spurred by malice or any unworthy
desire to settle old scores.

It is my firm conviction that Jon began to assemble his
archive because he had become aware that he had been fed untruths for years and
he simply wanted the truth to be known about the antecedents and antics of his
former church and its founder. It is for this reason that he willingly cooperated
with me when I was writing my book, never offering opinions or information
without comprehensive documentation to back it up.

Jon Atack believes that people have the right to know the
truth about Scientology. That belief is the laudable genesis of this book.

—Russell Miller, Author
of
BareFaced Messiah
,

August, 1988.

What Is Scientology?

“Man is made by belief. As he believes,
so he is.”

—
Bhagavad
Gita

Scientology is among the oldest, largest, richest, and most
powerful of contemporary cults. The “Church” of Scientology, first incorporated
in 1953, claims to have seven million members, and reserves of a thousand
million dollars. There are nearly 200 Scientology “Missions” and “Churches”
spread across the globe.

During the 1970’s, cults became big business and big news.
Yet in the welter of books published about these “new religious movements,”
there has been no real history of Scientology. This is rather surprising,
because the history of Scientology is at turns outrageous, sinister and
hilarious. Accurate information about Scientology is scarce because it is both
secretive and highly committed to silencing its critics.

A few sociologists have argued that involvement in any cult
is usually short-lived and sometimes beneficial. However, after four years of
research, including interviews with over a thousand former cult members,
researchers Conway and Siegelman came to very different conclusions about
Scientology: “The reports we have seen and heard in the course of our research
... are replete with allegations of psychological devastation, economic
exploitation, and personal and legal harassment of former members and
journalists who speak out against the cult.”
¹

Making a comparison with the tens of other cults in their
study, they said: “Scientology’s may be the most debilitating set of rituals of
any cult in America.”
²

Scientology, a peculiar force in our society, escapes tidy
definition. The “Church” of Scientology claims religious status; yet at times
Scientology represents itself as a psychotherapy, a set of business techniques,
an educational system for children or a drug rehabilitation program. Officers
of the Church belong to the largely landbound “Sea Organization,” and wear
pseudo-Naval uniforms, complete with campaign ribbons, colored lanyards, and
badges of rank, giving Scientology a paramilitary air. Although Scientology has
no teachings about God, Scientologists sometimes don the garb of Christian
ministers. The teachings of Scientology are held out not only as scientifically
proven, but also as scriptural, and therefore beyond question. Scientology was
also the first cult to establish itself as a multinational business with
marketing, public relations, legal and even intelligence departments.

Scientology is also unusual because it is not an extension
of a particular traditional religion. It is a complex and apparently complete
set of beliefs, techniques and rituals assembled by one man: L. Ron Hubbard.
During the 36 years between the publication of his first psychotherapeutic text
and his death in 1986, Hubbard constructed what appears to be one of the most
elaborate belief systems of all time. The sheer volume of material daunts most
investigators. Several thousand Hubbard lectures were tape-recorded, and his
books, pamphlets and directives run to tens of thousands of pages.

In 1984, judges in England and America condemned both
Hubbard and Scientology. Justice Latey, in a child custody case in London,
said: “Deprival of property, injury by any means, trickery, suing, lying or
destruction have been pursued [by the Scientologists] throughout and to this
day with the fullest vigor,” and further: “Mr. Hubbard is a charlatan and worse
as are his wife Mary Sue Hubbard ... and the clique at the top privy to the
Cult’s activities.”
³

In America, dismissing a case brought against a former
member by the Scientologists, Judge Breckenridge said: “In addition to
violating and abusing its own members’ civil rights, the organization over the
years ... has harassed and abused those persons not within the Church whom it
perceives as enemies. The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid,
and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder LRH [L.
Ron Hubbard] The evidence portrays a man who has been virtually a pathological
liar when it comes to his history, background, and achievements. The writings
and documents in evidence additionally reflect his egoism, greed, avarice, lust
for power, and vindictiveness and aggressiveness against persons perceived by
him to be disloyal or hostile.”
⁴

The evidence cited by Judge Breckenridge consisted of some
10,000 pages of material forming part of Hubbard’s personal archive including
his teenage diaries, a black magic ceremony called the “Blood Ritual,” and
hundreds of personal letters to and from his three wives. Some of these
documents were read into the record, and others released as exhibits. The
picture they reveal is very different from Hubbard’s representations about his
life.

Nevertheless, Hubbard’s personal history is one of the great
adventure stories of the 20th century. A penny-a-word science-fiction writer
who created an immense and dedicated organization to act out his grandiose
ideas on a global scale, Hubbard commanded the devotion of his followers, who
revere him as the greatest man who has ever lived. At the height of his power,
Hubbard controlled a personal intelligence network which successfully
infiltrated newspapers, medical and psychiatric associations throughout the
world, and even a number of United States government agencies.
⁵
Eleven of Hubbard’s subordinates, including his wife, received prison sentences
for their part in these criminal activities.

There is also something tantalizing in the psychotherapeutic
techniques which are at the core of Scientology. Cult devotees are sometimes
seen as adolescent, half-witted zombies coerced into joining an enslaving group
because of their inadequacy. But Scientology has attracted medical doctors,
lawyers, space scientists and graduates of the finest universities in the
world. One British and two Danish Members of Parliament were members at one
time. Even psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists have been enthusiastic
practitioners of Hubbard’s techniques. And such people have often parted with
immense sums of money to pay for Scientology counseling which can cost as much
as $1,000 per hour.